Stay
by BodiesDon'tLie
Summary: Bella lies to her rents to live in NYC with Edward. Can their love withstand the struggles put in place when their old lives come back to haunt them aka Jacob from Forks and Tanya from NYU? Rated M for language and lemons.
1. I Run To You

**omg i everybody! this is my first fanfic and im really excited! okay so basically this story is gonna be about Edward and Bella and how their relationship can withstand everything, oter peoples opinions, exboyfriends/exgirlfriends im not really sure on the rest i just got inspired so i went for it. hope you like it!**

* * *

**I Run To You**

**BPOV**

I have never been a person that lies. I think that lying is terrible and can only lead to more lies which only lead to trouble. But I lied. And I would do it all again without a thought.

I am currently on a plane flying from my hometown of Forks, Washington to New York City for the summer. Three whole months with Edward Cullen…of course that's not what my parents think. I told them that I was going to spend the summer with Edward's younger sister Alice Cullen, who also lives in New York City. Edward and I decided that after being apart for so long that we should spend the summer together, so I busted my ass to get an internship in the city. Now I told my parents that I was going to live with Alice for the summer because they don't know that Edward is my boyfriend. Reason why they don't know this? Edward is 22 years old. I am 18 years old. Edward just graduated college; I am just starting college in that fall. Alice suggested that I tell my parents about Edward and I being together, but let us take a gander and how that conversations would go;

_O Hi Mom and Dad! Just wanted to let you know that I am going to fly to NYC for the entire summer and live with my boyfriend…o right forgot to tell you! I have a boyfriend! Remember Alice's brother who is five years older than me? Yea we are together! I'm gonna go live with him in his apartment. Just the two of us… All alone… Sleeping in the same bed at night. Okay great see ya!_

At this point my parents would respond but they can't because they have collapsed on the floor due to a heart attack.

Edward and I met through Alice, obviously. Alice and I have been best friends since the beginning of high school and to make a long story short Edward and I both kinda had feelings for each other for a long time till Alice's graduation party 2 years ago when he finally told me how he felt. My friend Jake had stopped by that night and was shamelessly flirting with me and staring at my ass the entire time. Edward got so pissed that he threw him out.

_Sweet Jesus that was hottttt_

Now even though I was annoyed with Jake I got really pissed at Edward because…well let's just say that Edward wasn't so subtle when he told Jake to 'get the fuck out of my house you dog'. So I yelled at Edward and told him to stop being an ass and he yanked me into a corner and told me how me hates when other guys look at me and hates when other guys flirt with me and especially hates that he is all the way in New York for college and never had the guts to ask me out when he comes home on breaks. I think that last one may have come out by accident but I was a good accident because we SHAMELESSLY made out for the rest of the night.

Now this is not saying that Edward was a complete and total celibate Nun when he was at college. I have Facebook. I have seen the pictures. I mean it's not like I was either but you know when you really have feelings for one person, but you get with other people anyway just to get the tension out. And you think that you've forgotten about someone but then whenever you see them you get caught up in the emotions again? You know? Any of this sound familiar? Well that was us.

We decided that we would be together during the summer and then if either one of us wanted to end it when Edward went back to NYU that it would be understandable. Well that never happened and now here we are two years later and I'm about to spend the entire summer with him  I mean let's be honest here it's not like I've never slept in a bed with him before. All those times the past two years when he was on break and I was 'having a sleepover with Alice'…

_Yea right_

And in case you were wondering we've never had sex because the little dumbfucker wants to wait…what for I have no idea at this point probably the apocalypse. As you can probably tell I'm a little sore on this subject but not sore where I want to be…

_If you get my drift_

* * *

I get off the plane and walk through the terminal and can already see Alice jumping up and down in her pink high heels.

"BELLA!" Alice squeals as she runs through the crowd towards me and attacks me with a giant hug which almost knocks me over.

_Damn she can really work up some momentum running in those heels_

"O my gosh Bella I'm so excited that you're here! O my gosh Edward is going to be so happy when he sees you! O my gosh he's going to be so surprised!"

"Surprised? What do you mean surprised? Edward knows I'm coming today I talked to him last night." I said

"Well yea but I thought it would more fun this way!"

_Uh ooooo_

"What way is 'this way' Alice…."

"The way where I tell him that your plane got delayed and you won't get here until tomorrow morning!"

_Why didn't I expect something like this…._

"Aww geez Alice why did you do that!?" I groan

"Don't worry it will be better this way. I know it!" Alice chirps

_Well there is nothing I can do about it now. _

As we were standing in the baggage terminal waiting for my bags she looked me up and down and said

"So….is that what you were going to wear when you saw Edward?"

After that sentence came out of her mouth I knew I was in for one hell of a night.

* * *

So we decided, well actually ALICE decided, that we should go back to Alice's apartment to get me 'cleaned up' for Edward tonight. Of course Alice's version of cleaned up means putting more crap **on** rather than taking the crap **off**.

I flopped down on Alice's bed and watched the sunlight from her French floor-to-ceiling windows reflect off of the chandelier hanging over her bed. Edward and Alice's father is an amazing surgeon in Forks and used to work in California where he acquired most of his millions of dollars until he decided that he wanted to go someone slower paced for his children's' sake. This is why instead of living in a crappy dorm on NYU's campus, Alice has her own apartment on the Upper East Side.

"So Alice what exactly is your plan for Edward and I tonight? I'm assuming that you have one…."

"Why yes my dear little Bella I DO have a plan!" Alice says to me as she pats my head.

After assembling a variety of hair products, appliances, and makeup on her armoire she turns around and grabs my hand pulling me off of the bed and onto my feet. She looks me over and turns me around and I can just the see the dreaded wheels turning her head.

"Alright I'm ready! Get in shower and wash your hair okay? Ohhhhh Im so excited!!" Alice says as she hands me the softest towel I have ever felt in my life and shoves me into the bathroom.

I walk out of the bathroom wearing only God's gift to the world of bath cloths and Alice is dancing to Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You" singing at the top of her lungs.

"Alice……. **Alice**……. **Alice!**......**ALICE!!**........." I scream. She finally hears me and turns the music down on her stereo before whipping around to look at me.

"Here Bella take these put them on. I think they're your size." Alice says nonchalantly, handing me a bra and panty set.

"Aww Alice come on this is SO not fair! I'm letting you play life-size-Barbie with me AND I didn't kill you for arranging some stupid thing with Edward tonight because I could be with Edward right now **not** playing dress-up and…." I don't bother to go any further because I can see that Alice was just not having any of it.

"Bella trust me, this will be so worth it and you are gonna look Hot. As. Shit. I mean you and Edward haven't seen each other since spring break three months ago and when he sees you walk into that bar looking like you are gonna look, well big Edward might be having an issue with little Edward." Alice giggles.

"Eww Alice he's your brother! And he's not little! And wait what bar??...." I trail off.

"Haha that's the spirit! But I think THAT was a little too much information for me! And don't worry about where we are going just know that it's gonna be awesome!"

Alice pushes me back in the bathroom to put on the bra and panties and I am ashamed to say that when I look in the mirror, I actually think that it looks kinda good. Really good. Or at least better than my black cotton bra and panties. I cautiously walk out of the bathroom and of course Alice is waiting for me.

"Holy Madonna you look hot Bella! Okay now sit in the chair and you'll be done in no time! O my gosh I can't to see you in that dress I picked out for you!"

And so my trip through girly hell begins. I hope Edward finds out about this and destroys all of her shoes. Or just gets one giant hard on and wants to do it….either situation. It's a win-win.

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**Okay hope you liked the beginning! I would love some reviews good bad whatever its all fine by me. **

**SO NEXT CHAPTER:**

**Alice and Bella will look hot and go to the bar and Edward will be there are and BOW CHIKA WOWWOWN will ensure**

**CHECK ON MY PROFILE FOR OUTFITS FROM THIS CHAPTER!! ill be doing outfits for every chapter cause i think it adds to the whole image of the story and its just fun :)**

**i send you all my love!!**

**I Run To You: Lady Antebellum**


	2. Here I Come

**Okay so huge thanks to these four people; gelica, Twi-Mom12292005, Sam and Bobby's girl, ElleloveEdward**

**I woke up and checked my email before taking my SAT IIs on saturday morning and you guys had reviewed/favorited this story/added me to author alert so you guys are officially VIP your awesome and i love you :)**

**Dont forget to check out the pictures for this story the links are on my profile**

Here it is chapter 2!

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**Here I Come**

**BPOV**

"Alright I think I'm done…Bella you look A-maz-ing!"

Alice bounced up and down with glee as she spun me around so that I could see myself in the mirror. My eyes were rimmed with black eyeliner, but not so much that I didn't look like me. My lips were a very glossy pink but were smooth not sticky. Alice had amped up my wavy hair into loose curls and as much as I hate to admit it, I thought I looked pretty good. I don't think I'd ever looked this good before. I turned around to thank Alice but was stopped by what she held in her hands.

"Okay now Bella this is your dress its gonna look so good especially with all the lights at the club!"

Now I'm not exactly what some might call fashion forward if you haven't guessed but I do know what a garment bag looks like. And this was a small garment bag meaning only one thing; small outfit. I cautiously walked back into the bathroom and Alice yelled through the door to be careful not to mess up my hair or make up.

_Maybe it won't be so bad. Maybe it will just be a little black dress or something. O dear lord I hope this dress is black!_

Yea no such luck. Alice had chosen a tank-top dress completely covered in silver sequins. And boy o boy was it short when I put it on. It barely reached my mid-thighs. As I was about to take it right off and scream at Alice through the bathroom door that I would wear this dress when hell froze over, defrosted, and froze over again, I remembered what Alice kept saying; "_Trust me Edward is gonna go crazy when he sees you. Don't worry about a thing just trust me okay?" _And she is usually right. So I kept the dress on and decided that I would just suck it up and follow Captain Alice's every order. I reached in the bag to see if there was any extra dress in there because I would sure love it if there was but found some earrings instead. They were black bows with a crystal hanging down from them.

_Well at least these are pretty cute…_

I walked out and Alice was dressed.

_Jesus I left her alone for 4 minutes and she already looks like a freaking supermodel. _

Alice had on a pink, red, and navy spaghetti strap dress with an insane pair of red ankle strap heels.

"Come on Bella let's go it's almost 8! It's party time!" Alice shouted

"O yea and here's your shoes…" she said as if it was an afterthought handing me a pair of black peep-toe pumps.

"Alice. I. Don't. Do. Heels." I said in as stern a voice as I could muster.

"Bella I know that but these heels are perfect for you. The heel isn't _really_ high and there is a platform under the toes so they are really easy to walk in." Alice assured me.

I sat down on the bed and slipped on the heels, the shortness of the dress not escaping my attention, and stood up. And to my surprise, as it turns out most things are with Alice even though she is **always** right, they were quite comfortable. I walked around her bedroom and didn't even trip once.

_DID YOU HEAR THAT? I WALKED IN HEELS! AND I DIDN'T TRIP!_

I didn't have much time to bask in the glory of my new found stability before Alice grabbed two small purses, a hot pink Miu Miu bag for her and a black Chanel for me, and told me to hurry up and put all my crap in this little bite-sized purse. I looked over to my big purse and wondered how in the world I could get all my stuff in this little bag. This is the one think about me that I think Alice may understand; Women carry big purses because we need anything that we could possibly need for any possible situation. Band-aids, Neosporin, chap stick, wallet, car keys, sunglass, reading glasses, glasses cleaner, cell phone, iPod, gum, bobby pins, hair ties, an extra earring back, hand sanitizer etc etc. Alice notices the look of concern on my face as I look from my purse to the tiny one I am now holding and says

"In terms of clutches and going out all you need in your cell phone, gum, and lip-gloss," she says tossing a tube of sparkly pink into my bag. "But you can put more stuff if you want. I gave you the biggest clutch I have because I thought you'd probably need it hehe."

_Thank god there is more room in this bag_

I thrown in my band-aids and Neosporin because who knows how long my new found balance is going to last.

"Alright Bella, as Tyra would say 'You are fierce!' and now we need to go!" Alice cheers grabbing my hand and pulling me out of her apartment and into the elevator just outside her door. She quickly presses the P button to get to the parking garage. For a second I imagine Alice doing that thing that little kids do when they press the button and it lights up but they keep pushing it anyway laughing the whole time because apparently it's fun. While going down Alice is gabbing about how much fun tonight is going to be and how she hasn't gone dancing in so long but all I can think about is Edward. I can feel my heart straining in my chest just thinking about him. Just thinking about how close we are right now, being in the same city for the first time in months, yet so far away _no thanks to Alice._ If someone told me he was 30 blocks away I would run there in a second. I would run there in these heels.

_Yea that's how much I love him._

When the doors open my daydreaming is cut short and Alice leads me to her new Boxter S red Porsche. She loves this car like nothing else. **She even named it; Lucy. She named her car Lucy**. As we drive out of the garage I can't help but be nervous.

* * *

We get to the club and of course don't even wait in line because Alice knows the bouncer. As we walk inside it is all dark except for the colorful flashing lights and the lights on the bar. The club is huge and had two floors. I automatically make a bee-line for the bar and pull Alice with me. I spot two open stools next to each other and sit us down there.

"Bella what are you doing?" Alice asks

"I'm just a little nervous I guess." I admit

"O honey you have nothing to be nervous about!" Alice squeals with excitement. Her phone beeps and she checks her text message passively before throwing it back in her purse.

"Come on Bella lets go check our purses and then we can go dance!!" Alice says.

Dance. Yes dancing. What an excitement. Can you tell how excited I am? Can you? Can you see it? You probably can't because I'm not excited at all. We give our purses to the woman at the coat check whose boobs look like they are trying to break loose from that inhumane cage she must call a top and has on way too much makeup. Alice thanks her and takes the number stubs and sticks them in her bra.

_Why am I not surprised._

As we walk toward the dance floor guys keep giving us the head-to-toe check out and some yell things along the lines of "hey sexy" and the like. I guess even though it was gross it gave me a little confidence in my appearance because when we started dancing I had no reservations. And maybe it was because I was dancing with Alice. Dancing with Alice is actually fun because it's like there is no one else on the dance floor except us just having our own fun little dance party like two flower girls at a wedding. Just as I was starting to tell Alice how much fun this actually was for me I saw this guy staring at us from the corner of the dance floor.

"Hey Alice!" I shout to her from over the music.

"Yea!"

"Come here!"

She gives me a questioning look and moves closer so I can whisper in her ear.

"That guy over there is kinda creepy. He keeps staring at us." I say

"Where?"

"On my left. But don't look…Aww Alice I said don't look!" I say exasperated.

All of a sudden I see him walking over toward us.

"O great Alice now you've done it…" I say

The man reaches us and introduces himself.

"Hello ladies. I'm Mike what are your names?" He asks with a cocked smile.

"I'm Alice!" Alice says shaking his outstretched hand, obviously not really sensing the same creepy factor that I do.

"Umm I'm Bella…" I say trying not to look him in the eye.

"Well Bella why don't we dance? I'm assuming that is what you would like to do I've seen you watching me tonight. "Mike says.

I frantically look around for Alice but she's gone.

_WTF ALICE. Seriously…._

"I'm alright actually. I think my friend just went to get our bags I think we are leaving soon…" I say

Before I can finish Mike grabs my hips and whispers in my ear,

"And if you're lucky I can guarantee dancing isn't all we'll do and I can see that you are a lucky kind of girl."

"No thank you we really are leaving now." I say pulling out of his grasp and trying to walk away.

"Aww come on baby we'll have so much fun…." He says grabbing my arm and spinning me back to face him.

At this point I was about to hit him but his grip was so tight on my arm that I was sure there would be a bruise there tomorrow. Before I can say anything someone's arm wraps around my waist and their hand firmly grasps Mike's hand on my right arm.

"She's. With. Me."

* * *

**Here I Come: Fergie**


	3. Won't Go Home Without You

**Won't Go Home Without You **

**EPOV**

Life sucks. Like sucks on a whole new level than ever before. I seriously **cannot** believe that Bella's flight got delayed. Whoever or whatever was the cause of this delay, I will find them and kill them.

_I'm not kidding. I'll do it. _

I had been looking forward to this for weeks and just as I'm going to leave to pick her up Alice calls and tells me she won't be here till tomorrow morning.

_That's 17 more hours. Or 1020 minutes. Or 61,200 seconds._

I had it all planned out too. I was going to be there waiting for her with roses and I was going to kiss her like she's never been kissed before and then I'd pick her up and carry her off all "An Officer and a Gentleman"-ish.

_Wait. That is really girly. Geez Edward grow your balls back why don't you?_

Whatever I'm just pissed that she's not here. Its 7 pm and she **would** be here with me right now if it wasn't for the stupid plane delay thing.

_Man I miss her so much._

I don't think I realized how much I really miss her until Alice called. I don't think I realized how much I love her until now. I mean I always knew that I loved her. Even before we got together I knew I loved her. I never even thought about another girl my entire college life. I mean there were plenty of girls who made passes at me during parties and stuff but they were usually drunk or desperate.

_Or both. That was never good. _

I remember writing down notes from what one of my professors was saying in my economics class one day and looked down five minutes later to see that I had just been writing Bella's name over and over the entire time.

And now I am in Jasper's stupid car driving to a stupid club full of stupid people. Alice wanted him to go **but** she also wanted me to come so I would stop moping around. I think she was really afraid that if I didn't come I would spend all night at the airport hoping that her plane might come in early. And in all honesty, I probably would have.

"Come Edward it won't be so bad. Just have a couple drinks and you'll be fine." Jasper said never taking his eyes off the road.

"I still don't see why I have to go. She's your girlfriend."

"She's your sister."

"Touché"

Jasper stops at a red light and finally looks at me and raises his eyebrow.

"Dude is that shirt even clean?" he asks. I look down at my white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

"I don't know does it even matter?" I respond, my head on my hand, leaning against the window.

We pull up to the club and Jasper parallel parks across the street. Jasper is a music major at NYU and Alice is a fashion major so he and Alice met there at a tutorial thing for all the arts majors. Coincidentally Jasper and I are pretty much like brothers now. In other words, my fridge is his fridge and vice versa. We get out of the car and walk across the street but not before I slam my car door meaningfully. Am I acting like a toddler? **Yes. **And I don't plan on acting like an adult until I get my Bella.

"Damn dude, don't take the anger out on my car." Jasper snaps

"Yea fine whatever." I say.

_Can't believe that way this day has turned out_.

-------------------------------------------

We finally get into the club and Jasper texts Alice to tell her that we've arrived. I make a bee-line for the bar to a pair of two empty seats.

"Alright, I'm gonna go find Alice. Get a drink or something. Loosen up a bit okay?" Jasper says. He notices that I make no move to order a drink from the bartender so he does it for me.

"Here take these" Jasper says handing me his car keys. "If I'm not back in twenty minutes then it means that Alice has talked me into staying all night and you can just drive yourself home okay? I'll get Alice to take me back to my dorm or something." Jasper says

"Yea ,alright. Thanks man." I say

"No problem." He shouts over his shoulder as he walks away.

The bartender slides me my drink and I give him a five from my pocket and tell him to keep the change. I decide to not have any of the drink and just shift the drink in my hands. Because I do plan on driving home soon. I don't know how long I was just looking into the glass before I felt Jasper's hand on my shoulder roughly turning me away from the bar to face him.

"Okay, don't get mad at me when I say this. Kill Alice not me. This was Alice not me." Jasper says, his face looking like he's anticipating some sort of bad reaction from me.

"Alright fine I won't kill you what is it?" I say, not even attempting to camouflage how exasperated I am with this day. Alice probably just went and slashed the tires Jasper's car so we couldn't leave or something.

"Bella is here." Jasper says quickly.

"I'm sorry what?" I ask. Now I'm pissed. What the fuck is going on here. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Bella's here. Alice talked her into something stupid and…"

"Where is she" I ask sternly

"She's dancing but…"  
_She's __**dancing**__? Okay now I __**KNOW **__something is really up._

I'm practically power walking towards the dance floor, partially cause I still need to have Bella with me, but the greater part is that I'm really pissed off and want to know what the hell is going on. And then I saw her. She was walking in my direction for the shortest of seconds but that was it took for my anger at the situation to decrease rapidly. Just seeing her face brought me back to sanity. And then I saw _him_ grab her arm and jerk her small body spinning back to face him.

_Alright who is this motherfucker…_

For the briefest of seconds I thought that maybe she liked this guy. That she was with him and that's why she's with him instead of me right now. My heart sank into my gut at the thought. But then I saw her try to pull her arm out of his grasp.

_O thank god _

I watch him look her up and down, his eyes pausing briefly on her legs and her breasts.

_O no he fucking didn't. Those are my legs and my breasts. No one else get to look at them like that except me. _

I walked over to where they were standing with a speed that I don't think I'd ever had before. The douche bag doesn't even notice me walking up with a look of pure murder on my face. I quickly wrap my arm around Bella's waist from behind her and pull her against my body while my other hand rests with an iron grip on his arm that is gripping Bella.

"She's. With. Me" I growl. I feel Bella's body straighten up in shock and then push further back against my body as she recognizes my voice. I thought I heard her sigh my name. It was as if she trying to melt into me. Then this idiot tries to shake my hand off but realizes he can't, and quickly let's go of Bella before he looks up at me and says,

"Who the hell are you?"

_Ugh he looks so slimy. _

I see Bella rub her arm where he had been gripping it and it was obviously starting to bruise. Immediately my protectiveness of her turns way up. I pull her tighter against my body and drape my other arm around to shoulders in an attempt to cut off any possible view of her cleavage that he would be able to see.

"I'm the boyfriend. So back the fuck off."

"Geez man fine whatever she probably wouldn't even put out anyway." He mumbles as he stumbles off. For a moment I consider going after him and kicking his ass but I decide against it. I release Bella and turn her around so she's facing me. I must have still looked angry because Bella said,

"Edward, please don't be mad I'm…."

But I cut her off before she could say anything more. I kissed her so hard I thought I might have hurt her but I knew that I didn't when she threw her arms around my neck and sighed against my lips. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her firmly against my body as tangled her hands in my hair in an attempt to pull me closer to her. I lightly ran over her bottom lip with my tongue and she opened her mouth allowing our tongue to meet. We both moaned at a feeling that we had missed for so long. Someone who obviously had a few too many drinks bumped into us then, knocking us out of our world and back to reality. We just looked at each other for a while until she said,

"Would you be completely opposed to leaving? I kinda just wanna go home."

"My thoughts exactly. Of course that only applies if by home you mean my apartment…"

"Ugh Edward don't be difficult of course that's what I mean!" Bella says pulling me by the hand towards the exit. I smile quietly to myself at that.

_She called my apartment __**home**_**. **

I pull Jasper's car keys out of my pocket and jog a little to catch up with her stride and pull my hand out of hers to wrap my arm around her shoulders and kiss the top of her head. She smiles and reaches her hand up to grab my hand around her shoulders and intertwines our fingers. We get to the car and realize that in order for us both to get in the car, we are going to have to let go of each other. We both pause just looking at the car for a few moments. I decide to suck it up and take the reins and walk her around to the passenger side of the car and open her door, carefully placing her in the car, and practically sprint around to the driver's side of the car. The second I get in our fingers are once again intertwined. I drove the entire way back to my apartment with one hand. The entire ride she had her body turned towards mine just looking at me and every so often I would lift our hands up so that my fingers could caress her face.

_God had I missed this woman. It's official. I'm completely lost without her. _

_-----------------------------------------_

We got to my street and I parallel parked in front of my apartment. I just can't bear to let go of her again and she must have felt that same because she crawled across the car into my lap so that I could pick her up and lift her from the car. I don't know what it was but I hadn't really noticed what she was wearing until now. Or shall I say **not** wearing. And my god did she look hot. I don't think I have ever seen this much of her legs before. She must have noticed me ogling her.

"Edward? Hello? Earth to Edward!" She said

"Yes, I'm here sorry I was just thinking about something." I say quickly trying to cover my tracks.

"Can we go now? It's getting kinda breezy out here." She says rubbing her arms with her hands.

"Of course love. I'm sorry."

We walk into my building and into the elevator to get to the 3rd floor.

_You know I bet if I pushed the emergency button they wouldn't be able to get us out of here for a while…and what else is there to do in a broken down elevator but make-out……O COME ON SNAP OUT OF IT EDWARD! She just got her I'm sure that's the last thing she wants to do she's probably tired._

The elevator dings and the doors open bringing me out of my internal train of thought. I walk out first, pulling her behind me so that I won't be tempted to stare at her ass.

_It looks so good in that dress though….No bad Edward! Down boy!_

I get to my apartment door, pull out my key and open the door for her.

But she doesn't move.

"Edward…."

* * *

**Won't Go Home Without You: Maroon 5**


	4. Chemicals React

_I get to my apartment door, pull out my key and open the door for her._

_But she doesn't move._

_"Edward…."_

* * *

**Chemicals React**

**BPOV**

"…Bella?" he asks "Are you okay?"

"Edward...your place is AMAZING!" I squeal.

_Geez I think I sounded like Alice just then…_

It seriously was the most beautiful apartment I had ever seen. It is about half the size of Alice's apartment but Edward was never one for extravagance. When you walked in, there was a huge family room in front and two hallways going to the right and the left. I could see a dining room at the end of the hallway on the right. I run down the hallway on the left and get to a gorgeous stainless steel kitchen. I'm jumping up and down on the inside, because I cannot wait to cook in this kitchen! I look down to the end of the hallway and see Edward's bedroom. I wonder what's in there….

_Well we will have to find out then won't we hehehe_

I ran down the hall to see the bedroom and when I saw the bed I couldn't help myself. I ran and flopped down on the bed on my stomach and snuggled into the big white comforter. It smelled like him. God did it smell like him and it smelt SOOO good.

_Wait. Where's the real thing? Where is Edward?_

I duck my head underneath my arm to see him leaning against the doorframe to the bedroom, chuckling to himself.

"I'm assuming that you're not too upset by the living conditions then?" Edward asks, still chuckling at me.

"Are you kidding? I wanna die in this bed it's so comfy!" I say, my words muffled in the comforter as I smush further into it.

Edward walks to the bed and lays down on the right side of the bed on his back. I turn towards him and let his arms pull me closer so that I can rest my head on his chest.

"So are you going to tell me about your day? Specifically what happened between when you got off the plane and when I had to pull that creep off you?" Edward asks, looking up at the ceiling.

I then proceeded to tell him about what Alice had done and how I had spent the rest of today in my own personal hell being Alice's life size Barbie doll.

"Well I am sorry about that but you could have told her no." Edward says with a sigh.

"I'm sorry did you just say tell Alice no? You know as well as I do that she would have kidnapped me in any way that she could possibly have come up with in that crazy head of hers, just so that she could see her little plan play out the way she wanted it to." I said, trying to hide the yawn that escaped me by pretending to scratch an itch on my face.

"Bella are you tired?" Edward asked looking down at me while slowly rubbing my back with his hand.

_Yes._

"No." I say

He doesn't buy it.

"Why don't you change okay?" Edward says slipping out of my grasp as I try to tell him that I'm really not that tired. And then I realized I didn't have any of my other clothes. Or that stupid clutch thing with my cell phone in it. Shit.

"Edward I don't have any clothes. They're all still at Alice's. I can just sleep in this." I say, throwing my legs over the side of the bed and kicking off my shoes.

"Don't be silly Bella. Just grab something from my closet." Edward says as he leaves the bedroom and closes the door to let me change.

_He could have stayed. __**I **__wouldn't have minded…._

I shimmy out of the Alice's dress and place it on top of the dresser. I don't wanna wrinkle her dress after all, she might kill me. Would a sequin dress even wrinkle? Ugh I don't know. I look down and remember that I still have on the lingerie that Alice gave me. I look up to see myself in the mirror.

_Well at least my boobs look perky. Look at that cleavage! Score!_

I take my earrings off and put them on top of the dress before walking back over to Edward's closet and spotting a neat pile of boxers in the corner. Geez he's so clean and organized. I don't even think I'm this clean and organized. Scratch that; I **know** I'm not. I grab the pair on top, hunter green and black plaid, and put them on. I spot a grey t-shirt with NYU on the front and reach for it but pause when I notice that the door is open. I turn around and see Edward staring at me. He sees me notice him standing there and doesn't move in the slightest. We just stand there looking at each other and I am painfully aware that I am standing there in only his boxers and my boob-a-licious pink bra.

"Bella…" Edward said in a husky voice as he walks towards me and grabs my hips, pulling me towards him as I grabbed his face with my hands. If I thought that the kiss at the club was hot, that was nothing compared to this. Our tongues met immediately and I thought my knees were going to give out at the sensation. The kiss at the club had been more about out reunion and our love; this was pure lust.

_And I love it_

Edward started slowly walking back towards the wall and I grabbed his strong forearms to balance myself. The second my back slammed against the wall Edward's hands slid down to my thighs and he hoisted me up so that my legs were in a strong hold around his waist and my arms were locked around his neck.

_Sweet Jesus. I can feel him. And sweet Jesus is he hard. Point for Bella!_

Just when I thought I would die from the friction between our waists, his lips let go of mine and he left long deep kisses down my neck to my collarbone. And that's where I thought he would stop. I mean, yea we had made out like this before, but I was never atop his waist and slammed against a wall. I assumed that was all I was getting tonight. But obviously Edward had other ideas. I shuttered when he kissed all the way down to the top of my bra and his hands splayed across my ribs.

_O. My. God._

My hands immidiatly went into his gorgeous bronze hair and I tugged a little bit as he was nuzzling my cleavage with his nose. I pulled my hands out of his hair and reached down to the buttons on his shirt. As I started to undo the buttons he lifted his head and looked up at me. I immediately took the opportunity when his lips were not occupied with other parts of my body to kiss him and one of his hands came up to grab my neck and pull my lips closer.

"Off." I said against his lips.

He got the memo and wasted no time helping me remove his shirt. Now I remember his torso being gorgeous, but I don't remember it being **this **gorgeous. I flung my arms around his neck again while he left one arm wrapped around my waist and his other hand came up to grab my face again as he turned around walked us towards the bed. I could feel his bare stomach against mine and we both shivered at the sensation. He gently sat me down on the edge of the bed and reached back to pull my legs from around his waist. He stepped back ever so slightly and looked at me. His eyes ran up and down my body and finally came to rest on my face. The look on his face looked like he thought he had done something wrong, that he was second guessing himself. Rejection immediately washed over me.

"Edward" I said quietly, almost in a whimper, as I dropped my head down to look into my lap. Within seconds he was back with his lips on mine. I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back into the middle of the bed with me. His lips traveled downwards again but this time stopped on my neck.

"You are mine." He growled.

_Biggest. Turn-on. Of. My Life. _

I moaned embarrassingly loud when he said that, but I couldn't help it. He then proceeded to give me the biggest hickey known to mankind. And I would have stayed forever in that moment if I could have. In New York City, in Edward's apartment, on his bed with him on top of me, one of my hands in his hair and the other arm wrapped around his shoulders, while his hands are grasping my waist, his thumbs grinding into my hip bones, and kissing my neck after declaring that I was his and only his. He pulled up from my neck and grinned at his handy work on my neck.

"That right there?" He says looking at me and then back to his masterpiece, "that is mark on you. It tells everybody that you are mine and only mine and that I will not tolerate anyone who thinks otherwise."

He jumps from the bed and goes to the closet to grab the NYU shirt that I was about to put on earlier and hands it to me. "Here. You should probably put this on if you want to get any sleep tonight." he said bashfully.

I took the shirt from him and sat up to pull it over my head. When I sat up I got a glimpse of myself in the mirror and noticed where exactly the hickey was on my neck and how red it had already gotten.

"Edward, there is no way I'm going to be able to cover that up tomorrow morning!" I say, with fake exasperation.

"Well, that's kind of the point love." Edward chuckles.

I turn around to see that he has changed from his jeans into a pair of grey sweatpants and is still shirtless.

_If there is a higher being up there, would they be so kind as to keep it that way?_

He climbed into bed and we both get under the covers. Edward pulled me against his chest. We just sat there for a few minutes holding each other before I thought that I should say something about Mike. I'm guessing that was what brought on the possessiveness aka the giant hickey on my neck. I mean he had always been pretty protective of me. When I was with Edward, I always knew when a guy looked at me the wrong way on the street or something, because I could feel him stiffen up and pull me tighter against his side. Once I even heard him growl under his breath.

_It was hot though…_

"Edward?"

"Hmm?" Edward mumbles into my hair.

"Are you upset about that guy at the club?" I ask quietly. Edward waits a few seconds and sighs deeply before answering.

"Yes a little. That just wasn't how I imagined seeing you after all this time." He says, pulling me tighter against his chest.

"Yea it wasn't exactly what I had in mind for the day either." I chuckled "I think I ended pretty well though…" I said under my breath, half hoping that he wouldn't hear it. But he did.

"Yea I would say that probably made up for the rest of this day." Edward said, nestling his face into the crook of my neck. We lay there for the rest of the night, neither of us wanting to shift our position for the fear that some physical contact might be lost.

_And I'm just happy that he didn't attempt to put a shirt on. _

* * *

**Okay so I hope you liked it! **

**There are pictures of the apartment on my profile**

**Remember reviews are my favorite thing ever!! **

**Chemicals React: Aly & AJ**


	5. Bring On The Day

**Bring On The Day **

**BPOV**

I woke up this morning in the most delicious position. My face was in Edward's chest with his right arm underneath my neck and his left arm wrapped around my waist. I quickly realized that there was no way that I was going to be getting out of bed alone, since one of his legs was thrown over both of mine in a deadlock. And not that I minded. I could stay here all day with no complaint. I snuggle deeper into Edward and breathe deeply. My movements must have woken him because a few seconds later I feel him rubbing my back lightly. I lift my head and place my chin on his chest so that I can look at him.

"Good morning love." Edward says with a drowsy smile. "Sleep well?"

"Mmm you have no idea." I say lolling my head to the side so it is resting on his forearm.

"Actually I think I may have a slight idea…"Edward says before lightly kissing my temple.

_Yea…yea I think I could wake up to this every day. _

Edward starts to lightly kiss down my face and when he reaches my jaw line my stomach growls loudly.

_Good job Bella. That's really sexy. Why don't you let him take a whiff of your morning breath too?_

Edward laughs softly against my jaw.

"A little hungry love?" he asks. Come to think of it I haven't eaten since I got off the plane and all I had was packs of peanuts.

_So yea I'm kind of hungry/completely hungry/now that I think about it I could probably eat Edward's shirt that I'm wearing right now and it would taste good._

"Maybe a little…" I mumble into his arm. Edward scoops me up and carries me out of the bedroom and down the hallway into the kitchen. He sets me down on the island and kisses my forehead before going into the fridge. He takes out a carton of orange juice and two glasses from the cabinet and shuts the fridge with his foot. As he is pouring the orange juice, Edward notices me looking around the kitchen like I just entered my own form of heaven.

"Would you like to cook something perhaps?" Edward asks handing me my glass of orange juice with a smirk on his face.

"Are you kidding?!" I say. Edward laughs and lifts me off the island and puts my feet on the floor.

"You want some eggs?" I ask, going into the fridge. Edward nods and goes into the cabinets to get me a frying pan and sets it on the stove before turning on the flame.

"So can I ask you something?" Edward asks sitting on a stool behind the island and watching me crack the eggs on the side of the pan.

"Edward, you know you can ask me anything." I say.

"Where do your parents think you are?" He asks softly with his head turned down towards the island, but his eyes are still locked on me.

"At Alice's." I say nonchalantly, watching the eggs in the pan sizzle. I look around for a spatula. Edward stands up and walks to the other side of the island and gets a spatula out of the drawer.

"Thanks." I say walking over to him and taking the spatula from him but he wraps his arm around my waist to keep me from walking away.

"Why don't you tell them?" He whispers.

"I can't." I respond, looking up into his eyes. He lets me go but places his hand on the island in a relaxed stance.

"Why not?" he tries to say calmly, but I can tell that he is tired of having this same argument over and over again.

"Edward, you know why. I've told you before. They would never accept it because of our age difference." I say.

"But Bella, you're 18 now. You can do whatever you want. I don't think that they will react as harshly as you think that they will." Edward says.

"I just don't want them to ruin it." I say quietly, finishing up the eggs. Edward gets plates out of another cabinet and sets them beside the stove and lightly places a hand on my back.

"What do you mean?" he asks.

"Well if they find out and don't approve then it will ruin everything. Everything is perfect right now why can we just let it be for a while longer?" I say, putting the eggs on the plates.

"Bella look at me." Edward says. I turn the stove off and turn around to look at him. He grabs my face strongly with his hands.

"Nothing will ever make this **not** perfect. Whether people agree or disagree with our relationship it doesn't matter. I know you don't want to start anything with your parents but at some point you will need to tell them. We can't keep it a secret forever. And it would be better if they heard it from you rather than anyone else." Edward says.

"I know I know. Can we just not do anything now? Can't we wait a little while longer? Please?" I ask him. Edward takes a deep breath and breathes his sweet breath back into my face.

"Okay. A little while longer." Edward says, kissing the tip of my nose. Edward grabs our plates and places them on the island in front of the stools before sitting down. He notices me still standing by the stove.

"You going to eat? The eggs are getting cold." He says. I walk over and push the other stool aside to hoist myself up onto his lap. He smiles and helps lift me up. We had just finished our eggs when we heard a knock on the door. Edward kisses my head and I slide off his lap so he can get the door. I pick up the plates and walk over to the sink. I've just turned the faucet on when I hear Alice's voice.

_Great. I love her, I really do, but I kinda hope Edward throws her out. _

I can them talking and Edward is raising his voice a little bit. I can hear brief spots of what he's saying. Things like 'Alice I swear', 'Come on we haven't even had 24 hours yet' and things along those lines. I know Edward has lost the battle when I hear Alice's heels clicking along the hardwood floors in the hallway and into the kitchen.

"Bella!" Alice says, running over and hugging me. "O my god how was your night?" she says wiggling her eyebrows at me.

"It was good." I say smiling to myself, looking down at the floor.

"Aww come on I want details!" She says jumping up and down.

"I'll tell you later." I whisper in her ear as I see Edward walk in carrying my bags. He looks at me and smiles my favorite crooked smile before walking into the bedroom. I almost swooned right then and there.

"Okay so we have to go shopping today. I'm not taking no for an answer because I took the liberty of going though your clothes and I can tell you right now that you don't have one thing in that wardrobe that you could wear to work." Alice says.

"Alice I'm sure I have **something**." I say.

"Umm no you don't. Trust me I know these things. Go get showered and dressed and ready for a good day of shopping!" Alice squeals throwing her arms in the air.

"Aliccceeeeeeee" I groan.

"Nope, you are going whether you like it or not." She says pushing me through a door that leads from the kitchen to the bathroom. "Okay, so get showered. That door over there goes into the bedroom." She adds, pointing to a door in the corner near the shower. "I'll be waiting…" She sings, closing the door behind me.

Of the course the bathroom was gorgeous too. There were marble countertops and huge mirrors. It was rather Zen-like. I opened the door of the blue tinted glass shower door and turned on the water. I stepped out of the shower and peeled off Edward's NYU shirt and boxers. I took off the pink bra and looked up behind me at the mirror above the sink to realize that the lacy pink boy shorts were more revealing than I remembered.

_I wonder if Edward saw them last night when he walked in_

I pull the underwear down my legs and kick them off into the corner with my ankle. I kick the rest of the clothes into the corner by the toilet and step into the shower. After adjusting the water I realize that I don't have any soap. Now I could go with option A which would entail me shouting to Edward for him to bring me my soap. Then he would have to come into the bathroom, with me naked in the shower, maybe we won't be able to control ourselves…. Or I could just go to option B and just go out completely naked at get me some soap _and some Edward_. Or option C I could just deal with whatever I can find in here. I decide that I don't have the guts to do options A or B, so I settle for what I can find here.

I look around and see Edward's shampoo in the corner of the shower. I pick up the bottle and squeeze a good size amount into my hand. I rub the shampoo into my hair and rinse it out. I see his body wash next to his shampoo and go for that next. After I have washed off the body wash I realize how much I smell like Edward now. I smile and turn the shower off. I open the shower door and step out onto the towel on the floor and grab the bigger towel that's hanging on the bar on the outside of the shower door. I lazily wrap it around myself and grab my clothing off the floor. I obviously was intoxicated by how much I smelled like Edward right now because I didn't think that he would be in the bedroom.

I walk from the bathroom over to the closet and drop my clothes into a pile by the suitcase on the floor. I crouch down and unzip my suitcase, only to find that not only did Alice go through my suitcase to check what clothes I had brought, that she also took the liberty of replacing all of my undergarments. I groan inwardly and search through all the lace, silk, and frills, throwing some out onto the floor in my fruitless search, until I find a pair of lacy black boy shorts, similar to the pink ones, and a black bra with a lace and band and a little bit of lace on the top of the cups. I figure it will have to do. I stand up and slide the underwear on while still wearing my towel and then drop the towel to slide the bra straps over my shoulders and clip the bra in the back. I pick the towel off the floor and turn around to put it back in the bathroom and off course there he is, lounging on the bed like the perfect Greek god that he is. My jaw drops and I can feel my cheeks change 12 different shades of red as I replay the last moments in my mind.

"Hi." I say, trying not to let my voice shake. He gets off the bed and walks over to me, wrapping his arms around my waist.

"You know you could wear that blue pair that you threw out of the suitcase with such vigor." He whispers, referring to an aqua thong, which I had thrown out on the basis that A. it's a thong and B. it's a lace thong.

"Don't push your luck." I say in a weak attempt to be sexy, but he buys it. Edward starts to kiss me with small soft peck's at first that got wetter and rougher every time until his hands found their way to my ass and squeezed.

"Edward" I moan against his lips and he moans back in return. And then Alice decided to insert herself in the situation.

"My dear big brother and my sweet best friend, please stop feeling up on each other because we are on a schedule here!" She yells through the door.

"Ignore her." Edward groans, walking backwards towards the bed and pulling me with him, hands still firmly planted on my ass.

"Edward Anthony Cullen! I heard that!" Alice yells through the door.

"Alice, come on I'm not ready yet!" Edward yells back. By this time he is sitting on the edge of the bed kissing the area of skin in between my bra cups with my arms thrown around his neck. I'm just about to crawl on top of him when Alice announces that she's coming in if we don't stop now. Immediately my ears perk up. How embarrassing would that be? I mean she knows that we make out and stuff but it would just be weird to have my best friend walk in on me half naked on top of her brother. I would like to avoid that situation at all costs.

"Alright, Alice! Alright!" I yell.

"Thank you **Bella**. Time is of the essence!" Alice says through the door.

"Ugh fuck you Alice!" Edward yells, hurling a pillow at the closed door. Edward collapses in defeat on the bed and I walk over to my suitcase to get out my black skinny jeans. I put them on and grab my red and black flannel button up. I slip it on and turn around to look at Edward. He is still flat on his back on the bed looking quite aggravated. I walk over to him and place by hands on his knees. He sits up and looks at me before running his hands through my hair.

"I don't want you to go." He whispers.

"I don't want to go either." I say.

"Then don't. Stay here with me all day. Don't go." He whimpers burrowing his face into the crook of my neck and wrapping his arms around my waist underneath my unbuttoned shirt.

"I wish I could. I really should go with Alice though. I do need outfits for work." I say. I would give anything to stay here all day with him if I could, but I know that Alice is right and I probably do need some work clothing. Edward pulls his head away from my neck and buttons up my shirts while I slowly run my fingers through his hair. I've decided that I like Edward's morning hair the best because it's all rumpled and sexy. He finishes my shirt and looks back up at me.

"I wanna give you something before you go." He says sliding off the bed and walking over to the nightstand. I hear Alice call my name to hurry up, so I go and get some black sandals from my suitcase. I put them on and grab my striped fabric bag before walking back over to Edward, who was playing with something in his hands.

"Here" He says handing me a key. "It's to the apartment. I figured you might need it."

To be honest I had never thought about a key. I mean when I really think about it, naturally I would need a key if I'm living here but the thought of actually having a key to Edward's apartment never crossed my mind. I can't help but smile and throw my arms around his neck and kiss him. He smiles against my lips and we hear Alice yell at us again.

"Alright, you should probably go before Alice goes into cardiac arrest." He says. I put the key in my pocket and we walk out of the bedroom.

"What are you going to do today?" I ask him as we walk down the hallway to towards the family room.

"I'm gonna go box a little bit I guess." He says. I hadn't registered what he was wearing before because I was so busy staring at his face, but the beater and athletic shorts he changed into should have tipped me off. Edward has been boxing for a while and he's pretty good. He's won all the fights that he's been in, but he doesn't fight for money very much. It's not like he needs it. As we get to the end of the hallway before it turns towards the family room, he pulls me back towards him and kisses the hickey on the side of my neck.

"And don't you dare let Alice put cover-up on this." He growls.

"Wouldn't think of it. I'll be back as soon as I can." I say. I grab his face and kiss him until Alice comes around the corner and drags me out of Edward's grasp and out of the apartment.

* * *

**Bring On The Day: Charlotte Martin**

**(You can find this one on the Sweet Home Alabama soundtrack)**


	6. All At Once

**All At Once**

**EPOV**

God I am so glad that Bella is here I don't even know how to put it into words. And when I walked in the bedroom and saw her in that bra and those panties, I knew that I could now die happily. I didn't mean to stare but I couldn't help it. And Jesus was it kinda embarrassing when she noticed me ogling her butt and all, but what can I say, I'm a butt man personally. And then when she just stood there looking at me, not even saying anything! The way that her cheeks got all pink and she was just looking at me from underneath her eyelashes I just couldn't control myself. I had been trying not to completely ravage her mouth the entire night and seeing her like that just pushed me over the edge. And god it felt good.

I mean I have gotten with my fair share of girls you could say, obviously all before Bella, and it was all pretty good I guess. But getting with someone for just lust, and getting with someone who gives you so many other feelings besides lust…let's just say that the second one is a hell of a lot better than anything I could have ever imagined. I really don't know how to explain it than to just say that being with Bella has shown me that if you **really** want to feel something physically, the emotion has to be there too.

I have a feeling that there is going to be a lot of physical contact between us for a while, because when we were apart we could always talk to each other but we could never have any physical contact. Every night at 6:00 no matter what we were doing, we would call each other and talk till at least 7:00, sometimes later. So it's not that kind of contact that we miss necessarily. It's being able to touch each other and hold each other and **show** each other how we feel, not just say it. And she smelled so good. Like strawberries. Always like strawberries. I felt kind of bad when I slammed her against the wall, but she was moaning and tugging my hair so hard I assumed that I hadn't hurt her.

_I love it when she pulls my hair_

And then when I went over to the bed my conscience yelled at me and I knew I went too far. I know that Bella wants to have sex. She hasn't told me directly, but she's told Alice who told me, and she's the one who is always trying to push us farther. I'm the one that always stops us. It's never her, always me. It's not that I don't want to have that with Bella. I do more than anything. But I don't want our first time to be in the heat of the moment. I don't want to fuck her; I want to make love to her. All the times where I even let us come close to anything like that it was all in the heat of the moment, like in my car or something like that. That's not how I want it to be. I want to have sex so I can show her how much I really do love her. And when we got to the bed I knew it was too far.

I saw a flash of rejection in Bella's eyes and I could hear it in her voice. I **hate** when she is ever upset by anything, worst of all by me, so did the only thing that I could think to do in my lust filled state, to show her that she was not being rejected; I gave her a huge hickey.

_And I when I say huge, I mean huge_.

On purpose of course. And Bella was right; I think it was because of that scumbag Mike or whatever his name is. I guess it bugged me more than I thought it did. I just really couldn't stand him looking at her like that, let alone touching her. I guess I also gave her the hickey because I also wanted to prove to myself that she was still mine. The whole long distance thing is really hard and it's not that I don't trust Bella. I do trust her and I know that she loves me and would never do anything to purposely put our relationship in jeopardy. It's that I don't trust **them**. I always got really protective of Bella whenever we went out when I visited her in Forks. Alice's graduation party really pushed my feelings over the edge, feelings I didn't even know that I had. That kid that kept flirting with her and brushing his hand over her ass when he thought he could get away with it. He even put his arm around her shoulder and looked like he was about to go in for the kiss. That's what ultimately did it I think. I had seen other guys flirt with her before but I had never seen another guy kiss her. And just as he reached a hand out to pull her face around to look at him, I walked over and pulled him off the couch and told him to get the fuck out. I contemplated hitting him, but I knew that Bella wouldn't like that, despite the satisfaction it would have given me. But then Bella yelled at me and told me I was being an ass, that he didn't even do anything.

_Well he was about to. I'd be damned if I had to let that happen __**and **__have to watch it. _

That was when I realized that I never wanted that to happen ever again. I really didn't mean to tell Bella that I liked her in that way, it just came out. I told Bella that I never wanted someone besides me kissing her or touching her ever again. I was really kicking myself, thinking I had gone too far, until she told me that she felt the same way.

_That was one of the best nights of my life. Really I should be thanking that kid for pushing me to my breaking point. Otherwise we probably wouldn't be where we are now._

I pull off my boxing gloves and throw them down on the bench to get a drink from my water bottle. I'd been texting Alice all day to just let Bella leave and go back home. I know Bella hates all the shopping and girly stuff that Alice makes her do. Bella just never tells Alice that she doesn't want to do any of it because she knows it would hurt her feelings and Bella wouldn't hurt a fly if she could help it. I just don't understand why Alice always forces Bella to go with her. I mean why can't she just go get the stupid outfits herself and just give them to Bella to try on later or something? I hear my phone vibrate and it's another text from Alice.

_Edward don't be such a pussy. Bella will be home when we are done. Just take your anger out on the punching bag. I deserve some quality time with her too. I haven't seen her in as long as you haven't. I love her just as much as you do. –Alice_

Like hell she does.

_Yea but you took her away from me for a full 17 hours already and put me through hell. And you don't love her as much I do. –Edward_

God I really hate my sister sometimes. Seriously how can she say that she loves Bella more than I do? Yea they are best friends forever and all, but Alice loves Bella, and I'm **in** love with Bella. Can she try to grasp the difference maybe?

Maybe I just need some time alone with Bella for a while. No interruptions and no other people, especially not Alice. Maybe I could get her out of her internship and we could leave and go somewhere else far away. We have never been alone somewhere just us. When I would visit her on my school breaks in Forks, there were always other people around. We were usually at my house but Alice and my parents were always there and if we went to her house her parents were usually there. I don't feel like three months are going to be long enough.

_I need more time with her damn it_

Alice can't just waltz into every situation and destroy every good moment between us. I still cannot believe what Alice did with the whole airport stunt and then this morning dragging Bella off without so much as a warning. I haven't even had a full 24 hours with her yet. Or added up. I don't think that three months is going to be long enough. **I **need more time. **We** need more time.

After our third date I bought an engagement ring. I just knew that I couldn't let her go. I haven't been on the edge of my seat wanting to ask her at every second, I want to wait until the time is right. If we get married in a year or in 20 years, it doesn't matter. I just saw that ring and thought of Bella. When we were at the club and I was yelling at Mike, I didn't want to say 'I'm the boyfriend'. I wanted to make him look at my ring on her finger and say 'I'm the fiancée' or 'I'm the husband'. Putting a ring on her finger is the most tangible thing that I can do to show other people that she belongs to me and me to her. It's been sitting in the top drawer of my desk since I bought it. I hear my phone vibrate again.

_Okay I'm taking her home now. God big brother you are so whipped ____– Alice_

Yes! Score! I grab my boxing gloves and throw them in my duffel bag before grabbing my phone and water bottle. I text Alice a huge thank you and run to my car at a parking garage nearby.

_I can't wait to get home. _

_

* * *

_

**All At Once: The Fray**


	7. Acting Like We're Animals

**Acting Like We're Animals **

**BPOV**

Ugh I think shopping my shopping experiences with Alice are the most tiring parts of my existence. I wouldn't mind just shopping for a few hours every once in a while, but that is not how Alice shops. Alice practically runs while shopping. Alice spends entire days looking at shirts and shoes and handbags. Alice will probably be buried at one of the "4 B's" as she calls them. The 4 B's are Barneys, Bergdorf's, Bloomingdales, and Bendel, as in Henri Bendel, obvious apparently to everyone in New York except me. Now if I am going to shop at all, I want to shop in a mall where the next store is only a few feet away. New York City shopping is not at all like a mall. Granted the fresh air is nice, but everything else about walking down Madison Avenue with tons of people, honking cabs, and dirty sidewalks was not really up my alley.

_Haha up my alley. Like in New York…they have alleys in the street…I kill myself_

I put my key into the door of the apartment and open the door, throwing down my bags and my purse on the end table in the hallway. I call Edward's name but I hear no response so I'm guessing he's still at the gym. Now my first order of business is my feet. I have found that walking around New York all day in sandals is not a good idea because, as of this moment, the bottoms of my feet are pitch black. I walk down the hallway and into the kitchen to grab an apple from the fridge before walking into the bathroom. I take a bite into my Macintosh apple while turning the water on in the tub. Alice has a thing about eating while shopping. She says by eating and shopping at the same time, your attention can be diverted and you will not be focusing solely on the merchandise. So I haven't eaten since breakfast. And this apple tastes so fresh and juicy, I'm sure that God saw that I needed an apple and placed this perfect apple in the fridge just for Bella.

_And Bella thanks you _

I open the shower door and grab Edward's body wash. I take another bite of my apple and place the body wash on the side of the tub. I hold the apple in between my teeth while I sit on the edge of the tub and roll up the legs on my jeans. I test the water temperature and turn off the water and spin around on the edge of the tub, sliding my feet into the water. I take the apple out from in between my teeth and take another bite.

_Yes. Yes I do believe that this apple came straight from the heavenly Lord above. And praise be to little baby Jesus with all his frankincense and myrrh for this lovely apple._

I put the apple between my teeth again and squeeze the soap into my hands before lifting each foot and scrubbing. And o boy did I have to scrub. I eventually got all of the black off my feet and let the water drain from the tub. I walk over to the sink and wash and dry my hands before taking the apple out of my mouth for another big bite. I walk out of the bathroom and through the kitchen to get to the family room. I throw myself down stomach first onto the couch and decide to wait for Edward.

He was all I thought about all day. I kept imagining different scenarios where he would magically appear on the fourth floor of Bloomingdale's and carry me out of the dressing room and run home. I had to settle for watching him and Alice fight over me through texts. I almost just left at about 1:00 but Alice gave me a dress that actually looked pretty good. And another one that looked pretty good. And then we reached a store called La Petite Coquette. Which was a store for yes, you guess it, lingerie. I complained about getting more bras and underwear since she already seemed to have dealt with that situation. She insisted that we were here to get me stuff to sleep in.

* * *

"_Bella you can't sleep in his clothes the whole time you're here." Alice says._

"_But Alice I don't have a problem with sleeping in his clothes. I like sleeping in his clothes actually." I say while playing with the hem of a light blue silk baby doll. It was actually kind of cute and had white lace on the top and bottom. _

"_That's really cute Bella why don't you try it on? It's Edward's favorite color on you, you know." Alice adds._

"_It is?" I say, taking the baby doll off the wall to contemplate trying it on._

"_O my gosh yes!" Alice screams. She pushes me into the dressing room so I can try it on. And I actually like it. __**Surprise! **__I get dressed again and walk out and Alice smiles at me. _

"_Yes?" she asks. I nod and go to look at the price tag but she snatches it away from me before I can see it. That must mean it was expensive. She pays for it and hands me the bag, noticing the uncertainty in my face. If I wasn't asking for it before, now I __**really**__ was. _

"_It won't hurt to try." Alice says taking my arm in hers. She sees that I'm getting rather tired as well. _

"_What do you say we call it a day?" Alice asks with a smile. My face immediately lifts up as I see her hail a cab. _

_

* * *

_

As I'm looking at the ceiling I realize that I have not seen the right side of the apartment yet. I roll off the couch, taking another bite of my apple, and walk down the hallway leading to the right side of the apartment. On the left side of the hallway I see his office door open. I walk in and sit down in the big chair behind the desk. It has wheels on it so I spin the chair around, trying to make myself spin really fast and have to grab onto the top desk drawer to stop myself. I giggle and let go of the drawer handle and walk out of the office and down the hall to the dining room. And it's beautiful. It's the same dark wood used throughout the rest of the apartment and very creamy. The room reminds me of coffee with lots of cream.

_Yummy. This room is yummy and I like it very much. Yummy like Edward._

I take the final bite from my apple and turn around and walk down the hallway and past the office and family room to through my apple core in the trash can in the kitchen. I look at the clock above the stove and figure that maybe it's about time to start dinner. I open the fridge and see that he really doesn't have much to work with and I'm not complaining because I'm quite tired and don't feel like doing any heavy duty cooking. In the freezer I see some chicken stick things and decide that they will have to suffice. I turn the oven on and wait for it to heat up to 350 degrees. I can't help it and just start thinking about Edward. I think about how much I missed him and how glad I was when he found me at the club. I think about how great it felt just to wake up in his arms. I thought about his hair, his eyes, his arms, his chest, how his hands felt on me, how his lips felt on me.

_Okay I'm getting turned on just thinking about him. Must stop thinking now so I don't jump his bones when he gets home. _

The oven beeps to tell me that it is all heated up and I stick the chicken stuff into the oven and start the timer. I walk over to the sink to rinse off my hands and feel a pair of arms wrap strongly around my waist and a pair of lips kiss the nape of my neck. I yelp a little bit in shock and turn around quickly in the arms around my waist.

"Edward! Geez I didn't even hear you come in you scared me to death!" I say. He smiles at me the entire time, obviously not concerned with my sudden rise in heart rate.

"I'm sorry love. I couldn't help myself" Edward says his lips only an inch from mine.

"It's okay…" I whisper, my voice shaking a little bit.

He lightly kisses my lips and pulls away looking in my eyes. I look back and reach up and place my hands on his shoulders. I bite my bottom lip lightly, which I know drives him crazy. He leans down and kisses me lightly again before pulling back again. He doesn't pull as far back as before, only a few centimeters so that our lips are lightly brushing against each other.

"Edward please" I groan impatiently.

Edward kisses me again but with more fevor this time, opening my mouth with his. My arms automatically wrap around his neck and I push my body against his. Edward groans into my mouth and pushes his body back against mine, making my back arch against the counter. His hands slowly slide underneath my shirt and up and down my sides, making me shiver. His lips trail down my neck and stop at the hollow space at the bottom of my neck. I move my hands from his shoulders and slide them on his back underneath his beater, feeling his muscles clench under my fingertips. I thought about taking his shirt off but decided against it in case someone walked in.

_Wait. We are here alone. No one else lives here. No one is going to catch us. _

Once I register this fact I slide my hands down his back and around to the front hem of his shirt and slowly remove it and throw it on the floor. I run my fingertips up his chest, outlining the curves in his muscles with my fingers to which he sucks in a shaky breath.

"Bella" he says pushing me harder against the counter top. The counter hits me in the wrong spot on my spine this time and I wince a little at the pain.

"Sorry love" Edward whispers. I'm afraid that he is going to stop us, but he picks me up and in his arms are carries me into the family room and sits down on the couch with me in his lap. His lips attack mine again and I can feel his fingers fumbling with the buttons on my shirt.

"For god's sake Edward just rip it off" I say against his lips. And boy did he rip it. He reached up to the top of my shirt where the buttons were and let out a low growl as he ripped my shirt down the middle, buttons popping off everywhere. He pulls the shirt down my arms and throws it on the floor. I wrap my arms around his neck and move so that I am straddling him. As our kisses get hotter and wetter, I grind my core harder into his, both of us grunting at the feeling. Edward moves his lips to kiss the tops of my breasts and reaches his hands up to palm me through my bra. I push my chest harder into his hand and grip his hair in an attempt to hold his lips closer to me. His hands snake around to the clip on the back of my bra. He looks up at me, asking permission, and I nod my head. Edward slowly unclips my bra and slides the straps down my shoulders. I let the bra fall off of me and Edward takes it and throws it to the side of the room. He leans back against the couch and holds my sides with his hands. I can feel the blush creeping up to my face with him staring at me, even though I don't feel uncomfortable in the slightest.

"Bella, you are so beautiful." Edward whispers, moving his hands up my sides to grasp my face and kisses me hard. I grab his forearms and pull him closer to me, brushing our bare chests against each other.

"Bella" Edwards says gruffly. His hands slowly move down my sides and brush the sides of my breasts, which are aching for his touch and I can barely take the teasing. Slowly, he moves his hands towards each other so that he is just resting his hands on my chest. I can't take it anymore and push my chest into his hands, causing him to let out a small groan and finally begin to rub my breasts.

"Edward" I moan softly, throwing my head back. Suddenly I feel Edward lean forward and take my nipple into his mouth.

_Holy. Shit. Well that was unexpected._

"Edward" I groan louder this time and push my pelvis into his as his other hand comes up to palm my breast that his mouth is not occupied with. After a few minutes of this I yank harder on his hair and pull his mouth off of my chest. I crash my lips down to his and a massive grinding fest occurs, again forcing our bare chests to rub against each other. I release my hands from around his neck and snake them down to the button on his pants. When I have the button undone and am starting on the zipper he realizes what I'm doing and grabs my wrist.

"Bella stop" he says breathily.

"Why" I ask impatiently.

"We can't. We can't do this." He answers softly.

I let my head fall against his shoulder.

"Why the hell not? I love you Edward. I love you more than anything and I want to share that experience with you. Please." I beg, trying to bring down his zipper.

"Bella we can't." Edward says.

I finally start to realize and slump downwards, my head still resting on his shoulder.

"You don't want to." I say quietly. Edward hears me and grabs my face from his shoulder and looks at me with a fierceness that I had never seen from him before.

"Don't ever say that. Don't you even think that. It's not that I don't want to have that with you, I do. Sometimes I have a hard time thinking about anything else. I just don't want to do it like this. Bella, I don't want our first time to be fucking, I want our first time to be making love. And if we go there now, like all the other times we have come close to going there, we would be fucking. We are always too caught up in the heat of the moment. I want to **make love to you Bella. **And we should do that on a beautiful bed with candles and roses and music not on my couch when I'm all sticky from working out and your pants are rolled up to your knees from doing something or other. It should be planned and it should be perfect." Edward finishes. I lean forward to rest my forehead against his.

"Edward it would be perfect. No matter if we do it on this couch, in a fancy bedroom, or on the biology tables at Forks High School it wouldn't matter. I would be perfect because it was with you." I whisper.

We sit like this for a few minutes before I hear the timer ding in the kitchen. I reluctantly climb off of his lap and reach for my bra. Edward get up and grabs my wrists before I can put it on.

"Can you leave it off for a little bit love? I won't dress if you won't." Edward smirks at me.

_Looking at Edward's bare chest for a while? That's an offer too good to pass up. _

* * *

**Hello all! Hope you liked this! **

**So I'm going to be leaving on a family vaction on the 20th and won't be home till the 29th. I doubt that I will be able to connect to the internet in those 9 days but I will try to write some. I'm hoping to maybe get you guys one or two more chapters before then. **

**Also if anyone has any ideas for things they would like to see in the story let me know!**

**Don't forget to check my profile for links to outfits/rooms and such things**

**3 xoxoxoxo**

**Animals: Nickelback**


	8. You And I

**You And I**

**BPOV**

So I wore my new baby doll to bed last night. I wasn't planning on wearing it but Edward snooped through my bags when I wasn't looking and asked about it. Let's just say the night went well. Not as well I would have liked obviously, but I'll take what I can get.

I woke up this morning with half of my torso on top of Edward with my face squished into his chest and Edward's face in my neck with one arm around my waist. I can't decide with position I like better; this one or the one I woke up in yesterday. I'd say that they're in a tie.

As I'm about to try and go back to sleep again I hear my phone vibrate on the nightstand. I slowly pull myself out of Edward's embrace towards my nightstand on the left side of the bed, and his body turns with me to lie on his side, facing me as I reach for my phone. It's a text from Jake.

Hey Bells! Hows it going up there? –Jake

I pause and just look at the text for a minute. I wonder what I should say, if I should say anything at all. He's one of the only people in Forks who knows about me and Edward and I've told him a few things about our relationship when we were close, but sometimes I just needed a guy's prespective and I thought that I could trust him. I still don't know if that was a mistake. It may well turn out to be.

Jake and I…let's just say it's been an interesting road. We've known each other since we were kids. We went to middle school together. And in high school he suddenly developed an interest in me other than an interest to go dirt biking.

I went to my friend Jessica's birthday party freshman year and he tried to hook up with me. I told him no and that I wasn't interested, hoping that it was just the alcohol talking and he would be my friend again the next day. But when I went over to his house the next day to hang out, he tried again. So I talked to him again and left. I came back the next day and he tried again. After that I just stopped going for a while. Soon he would come to my house and I wouldn't let him in, since it didn't seem that he could control himself. Then he stopped coming over. The day before Alice's graduation party he called me. He said that he was really sorry and wanted to know if we could still be friends. I told him yes and he asked if he would be seeing me at Alice's. I said yes and I was glad that he had seen where I was coming from. That was why I was so mad at Edward when he threw Jake out. I was under the impression that was trying to change and be better around me and Edward wasn't letting him try. Yes, his hand brushed my ass a few times but I thought it was just an accident.

After the party I explained to Jake what had happened between me and Edward that night and why Edward threw him out. He went off on this whole rant about how Edward was no good for me and that he was just going to break my heart and cheat on me the whole time he was away. I told him that Edward wouldn't do that and Jake stormed off and didn't talk to me again for a while.

Then he called me again to hang out after a few months and we were back to being best friends again. He would bring up Edward sometimes and I would answer his questions because it seemed like we were still just friends and that his romantic feelings towards me had faded.

Then after Edward's visit on his winter break about a year after Edward and I officially became an item, Jake called me over to his house to hang out. I went over thinking that I would just be a normal day with Jake, but it was far from that. Jake sat me down and told me that he loved me. I told him that I loved him too. He smiled and asked when I was going to break the news to Edward. He assumed that I meant that I loved him like I loved Edward. I tried to explain to him that I loved him like a friend, like family, like a brother. I was **in **love with Edward and that there were light years of difference between the two. Jake started bad mouthing Edward and I got upset and overwhelmed with the whole situation and tried to leave. Jake got up before me and stopped me from opening the door. He grabbed me and kissed me hard. I tried to protest and push against him but he didn't care. He just kept kissing me so hard. It was uncomfortable and I was sure I would bruise. All I thought about was Edward. How all of this was happening and he was so far away. It just made me miss Edward more than I already did. When Jake finally pulled away from me he asked if I felt the same spark that he did. I pushed him aside and ran out the door to my truck and sped home.

I never told Edward. I knew he would be furious and probably begin to plan Jake's murder. Jake had been a good friend to me in the times when he wasn't coming on to me. I just didn't want there to be some sort of confrontation between the two of them. It would force me to choose between them. But I know who I would pick if it came to that. I made that decision a long time ago.

I decide that I shouldn't ignore Jake's text. He has been getting better. I'll just be cordial and friendly.

Everything is great here. How about back home? – Bella

I set my phone back on the table and turn around to see Edward still asleep on his side with his one arm that had been around my waist outstretched towards me. I take it as an invitation and crawl into his arms. I throw my arm around his torso and push my face into his chest, taking in a deep breath of his comforting scent. His outstretched arm wraps around me and he pulls me closer to him as I slowly drift off the sleep again.

I wake up again to the feeling of Edward's lips on my forehead. I lift my head to look at him.

"Hello love." He says with a smile.

"Mmm hi." I say as he gives me a light kiss.

"Edward?"

"Hmm?"

"Can we just stay here all day? I don't really want to go anywhere and it is the weekend." I say, praying to God that he didn't have any plans today.

"I was hoping you would ask me that. I was afraid that Alice may have talked you into something else for today." He sighed.

"Nope. And no Alice talk. And no family talk. Actually, no talk about anything except us." I say.

"Your wish is my command" Edward says with a smile as he presses another kiss to my temple.

"But perhaps we should take this little party to the family room?" He says, getting out of bed. I groan at the loss of contact.

"No, Edward what are doingggg" I say, swinging my legs around so that I am sitting on the side of the bed, but crouched over a little bit from my grogginess. Edward walks around the bed to me and kneels in front of me.

"Come on it's not too bad out here love. You'll be hungry soon anyways." Edward says softly, combing his fingers through my hair. I wrap my arms around his neck and rest my head in the crook of his neck.

"I don't wanna" I whine as childlike as I possibly can. Edward chuckles and wraps his arms around me, picking me up and wrapping my legs around his waist. I could tell that we were walking but he smelled so good and I was so comfortable that I almost fell asleep in his arms from the walk to the family room. Edward walks over to the couch and sets me down prying my arms from around his neck. I snuggle into the couch and I feel Edward throw a blanket over me.

"Edward" I reach out for him with my arm and he takes my hand and kneels next to the couch.

"I'll be back in a flash love" He says kissing my temple. I hear him walk into the kitchen and I soon fall asleep to the sound to him making breakfast in the kitchen.

"Wake up love" I hear Edward whisper in my ear. I open my eyes and see that he opened the curtains and the room is full of sunlight.

"Aww Edward it's so bright in here." I groan, covering my eyes with my hand.

"Well I'm sorry love, but this is going to be our first full twenty-four hours together in four months and I would much prefer if you were awake for most of it." He chuckles. I open my eyes just enough to see the large smirk on his face.

"You have a point there." I say pushing myself into a sitting position. "What's all this?" I ask, referring to the buffet of breakfast food that lay out on the coffee table.

"Well there's some eggs, bacon, pancakes, syrup over there, plates, forks, knives, orange juice, cups, plates, and some fruit." Edward says, pointing to various foods on the table.

"Edward there is a lot of stuff here. Are you crazy I don't think we are gonna be able to eat all this." I say

"Well I've noticed that you haven't had much chance to eat in the past few days so I thought I might help catch you up a little bit. Don't forget that I'm eating this too. And I'm a beast!" He says in a low rough voice, stretching back and patting his stomach. I burst out into laughter. He can eat a lot when he puts his mind to it.

* * *

We spent the rest of the day lounging around. We watched some stupid reality show, with his feet in my lap, and every time someone on the show said something we both deemed not ridiculous or crazy I would throw a grape that he had to catch in his mouth. I don't even know how we got around to that game, but it was quite entertaining and Edward caught every one. And then we just talked for a while with my head in his lap, him playing with my hair.

I have to say Edward really did like that blue baby doll. I'm sure part of it was probably the easy access to my breasts and my ass. Once in the midst of a make out session he asked he could go through all the lingerie I had. I told him he should stop being weird and perverted. He said that if that blue thong from the other day was one of the more timid pieces, then he was dying to see what else was in there. I laughed and told him maybe for his birthday. Then he reached underneath me to grab my ass and look at my latest pair of lacy purple panties and said that maybe he wouldn't. That he liked being surprised.

I'd have to say that was one of the best days I've had in a long time. And it was all spent on the couch, where we eventually fell asleep in each other's arms.

* * *

**Okay this is probobly the last update for about a week or so. I'm feeling kinda lonely so leave me some suprise reviews for when I get back!**

**You and I: Ingrid Michaelson**


	9. Landslide

**Landslide **

**BPOV**

These past five weeks have been the absolute greatest of my life. My internship has been great and that is the only place that I have seen Alice lately aka she has not been all up in me and Edward's business. I met another woman named Rosalie there. She is tall and blonde and basically perfect. It's great to have met someone new that can help me around New York and stuff when Edward and Alice are busy. But of course best of all is having Edward 24/7. I wouldn't give up these weeks for anything but I know that the summer is almost half over, and then I'll have to go to college, away from Edward again. But at least we will be in the same city.

I got off from work early today because for some reason they told all the interns to go home and that we would just be in the way for the rest of the day. They are doing some big project that they don't want us involved in. I'm thrilled because Edward doesn't know I'm off early and I'm going to surprise him.

_I love surprising him. His face is always priceless._

I pop my key in the door and walk inside. I quietly toss my purse onto the table in the hall and walk down the hallway and into the kitchen but I don't see him in there or in the bedroom. I turn around and walk past the family and peek around the corner into the home office. Edward is sitting at his desk looking at something in his desk drawer. He lets out a deep breath and closes the drawer before looking back up the computer screen and starts typing. I place myself on the threshold of the room and lean against the doorway with one arm, popping my hip out to one side. He looks up and notices me.

"Bella! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at work?" He asks with a huge smile.

_And there it is. His perfect surprised face. _

"We got off early today." I say, walking to him around the desk. He spins in his chair so that he's facing me and puts his hands on my hips as I walk up to him.

"Nice shoes." He says, looking down wagging his eyebrows at my brown platform heels. "I thought you hated heels." He says, looking back up and me and caressing my hip bones with his thumbs.

"I did. But then Alice and Rose introduced me to platforms, which are much more comfortable than regular heels." I say putting my hands on his shoulders.

"Well that's one good thing my sister has done." He chuckles to himself.

"I'm glad that you like them." I say, walking over to sit on his lap. "Do you mind if I take them off though?" I ask

"By all means." He smirks. I lean over to get the buckles on the shoes and slip them off with a cluck on the floor under his desk.

"There" I say triumphantly. "Much easier to move around now."

"That's what I was hoping." Edward says, holding my hips as I move to straddle his lap. I put my hands behind his head on the back of the chair to balance myself. As soon as our lips connect we are both caught up in each other and my hands move from the back of the chair into his hair. As I let my body fall against him the chair leans back a little too far and Edward's hand snaps from around my waist to grab onto the desk to hold us up.

"Careful love." He says.

"Sorry" I chuckle. We kiss again and this time I'm careful not to put too much of my weight against him. The one plus about this chair though, is that it does not prevent us from grinding. Edward moves his hands up to let the straps of my dress fall down my shoulders, revealing my red push-up bra.

"Ugh Bella are you trying to kill me" Edward groans.

"Maybe" I say breathily.

"You know you leave so early in the morning I never get to see what you wear to work. Sometimes when you come home I think that you look way too appealing. For the public eye that is." He chuckles. "Maybe we could have a little show sometime." Edward says.

"Haha sure why not. Or I could just wake you up and make sure you approve." I chuckle.

"Well the kind of fashion show I had in mind only included those heels and your undergarments so I think you would probably be **very** late to work if I let you wake me up." Edward laughed against my skin.

And just as Edward's hands snake up under my dress to caress my thighs, we hear a loud, knock on the door. I make a move to get up but Edward doesn't stop.

"Ignore it. It will go away." He says kissing my cleavage. I pull myself off of him and grab his face. I give him a long hard kiss and pull away from him, with his hands lingering on my hips.

"It'll just take a second." I whisper against his lips and skip out of the office. My main intention was to tease him a little bit.

_It's worked wonders in the past. _

I walk down the hallway pulling my dress straps up, hearing Edward mutter curses at whoever knocked. I stop to look in the mirror in the hall to make sure I look decent. My dress is fine and my bra isn't showing but my hair looks pretty sex-like. I figure that the UPS guy won't really give a damn and pull open the door.

My smile immediately drops. Standing in front of the door is Jake. My jaw almost hits and floor and my mind automatically starts racing. How did he get here? Why is he here? How did he find out? How will he react? His face looks hard as a stone and his eyes are on fire.

"Bella." Jakes says in a stern greeting.

As my mind is busy racing, Jake walks right past me into the apartment and turns around to face me in front of the family room. He looks around a little bit and then back at me.

"Nice place." Jake says in a very monotone voice.

"Jake, what are doing here?" I ask quietly.

"I could ask you the same thing." Jake says.

"No Jake you can't." I say angrily. "How did you even know I was here?"

"Well I thought I would come and surprise you. So I went to your work and a woman there said that they sent all the interns home. So I asked for directions to Alice's place. The woman said that you weren't living with Alice and gave me directions here." Jake said sourly.

"Jake, you don't have to look so angry." I spat at him.

"Don't have to look angry! Bella this is ridiculous I can't believe you're doing this!" Jake said a little louder.

"Jake this is none of your business!" I say, quite a bit louder as well. At this point Edward walks in and pauses when he sees Jake. He looks back and forth between the two of us and then walks past Jake and behind me to close the door. Jake is still staring daggers at me. Edward notices how uncomfortable and tense I am getting and places a hand on the middle of my back.

"Jake." He says, in a greeting almost as tense as Jake's had been to me.

"Edward." Jake says. I can feel myself starting to get nervous from the tension in the room. I never told Edward about all the stuff that Jake did while he was away, but he still remembers Jake from Alice's party as if it were yesterday. I start taking shallow, deep breaths to try and calm myself. Edward notices and lightly rubs my back.

"Jake I think you had better leave." Edward says in an icy voice.

"No I don't I will. I don't have what I came for yet." Jake says confidently.

"And what exactly was that." Edward asks. I can feel a low growl about to erupt from his chest.

"Bella." Jake says matter-of-factly.

"Excuse me?" Edward asks, now bringing his hand to my hip and clutching me tightly.

"Bella. I'm not leaving here without her." Jake says.

"Like hell you are." Edward growls. I can feel that this is not going to end very well.

"She belongs with me not you. You aren't right for her, she just can't see it clearly now but she will. You can't give her what she needs. **I** can give her what she needs." Jake says, clearly addressing Edward without even looking at me.

"Jake don't start…" I say.

"Don't start what Bella? Don't start with how he can't give you what you need? How he won't have sex with you or isn't even around for most of the year? Or don't start with how it's killing you that you have to keep this from your parents?" Jake says, addressing me this time.

I feel Edward's grip loosen on my hip as Jake says all this. I swing my arm up to wrap around Edward's torso behind me in a desperate attempt to not lose him in this moment. I can feel the wheels turning in his head as he thinks about what Jake is saying. I turn my face up to look at Edward.

"Don't listen to him Edward. He doesn't know what he's saying." I whisper, putting my hands on his face, trying to force him to make eye contact with me.

"Bella just think about it." Jake says softly. "We wouldn't have to hide from your parents, and I could give you what you need physically. I can give you what he can't. Just think of what we could be. What we could have…"Jake says in a whisper.

"Jake you don't know what you are talking about. You could **never** give me what Edward has given me." I say a few notches louder than my normal speaking voice.

"Bella you know you want it. Deep down inside you know I'm right. You know we should be together." Jake says walking forward to touch my face.

Before I can slap his hand away, Edward pulls me behind him and grabs Jake's arm. I look up at Edward's face from behind his back. I have never seen him this angry before. I wrap my arms around his waist to try and calm him.

"Jake. Leave. Now." Edward says.

His eyes look almost black from where I am standing. Jake shakes off Edward's grip.

"No. I won't leave without Bella." Jake says, and reaches for my arms around Edward's waist.

That was Edward's breaking point. Edward grabbed my arms from around his waist, before Jake could even touch me, and threw them behind him with such force that it propelled my entire body backwards a few feet. When I caught myself on the wall I saw Edward punch Jake in the nose. Jake grabbed his nose to try and stop the bleeding and winced in pain. Edward grabbed his collar and opened the door of the apartment, shoving Jake outside.

"Don't you dare even as much as **think** about coming back here again." Edward growls, slamming the door.

I'm still clutching the wall and Edward leans his back against the door and looks at the floor. We both just stay where we are for about half a minutes. Edward moves first and walks into the family room and sits down in a chair without even looking at me as he walks by. I watch him slump into the chair and put his head in his hands. I gather up the strength to let go of the wall and quietly walk over to Edward. I kneel in front of the chair and lightly rest my hands on his knees. I look at his hands and notice that the one that hit Jake has some cuts over the knuckles.

"Edward your hand…"

"Don't worry about it." He says shortly.

"Edward….Edward look at me." I ask, trying hard not to cry.

Edward lifts his head and looks at me. He looked rather lost to me and I couldn't deny the sadness that was in his eyes. I place my hands on his face softly.

"He's right." Edward says.

"What? Edward don't say that. He couldn't have been further from the truth." I say, trying desperately not to let him back away into his own head. I had to know what he was thinking.

Edward doesn't touch me at all, his hands now lying in his lap. His eyes shift away from me and look out to the left side of the room. Without warning Edward stands up and my hands fall from his face.

"Edward?" I ask.

He walks over to closet in the corner of the hallway and pulls on his leather jacket.

"Edward where are you going?" I ask. I can tell my voice was shaking with my attempts not to cry in that moment.

He doesn't answer me and walks to door. He puts his hand on the doorknob and pauses for a few seconds before opening the door and walking out of the apartment. I pull myself up onto the chair Edward had been sitting in. I stare at the door, thinking for some reason that he was going to change his mind and come back. After a few minutes of staring at the door I knew that he wouldn't be coming back soon. But for some reason I can't stop watching the doorknob, hoping that it will turn open again.

* * *

**Suprise! I found some internet connection for the time being! **

**Leave me some love aka reviews :)**

**Landslide: Dixie Chicks**


	10. Never Think

**Never Think**

**BPOV**

I don't know how long I sat there just looking at the door. It must have been at least a couple hours because by the time I moved, my stomach was growling at me for not having lunch. But I didn't want to eat. My heart was down in my stomach, filling me up completely.

I still couldn't believe that Edward had just walked out the door. I was partially angry at him for just walking out, but mostly heartbroken. To not know what he was thinking, what he was doing. All I could do was wait. Wait for him to come home and **talk** to me.

I took the belt off my dress and took my earrings off and threw them down on the coffee table. I walked over to the table by the door where I dropped my purse earlier and got out my cell phone. I hadn't called him earlier because I thought it would be best to let him cool off a bit, and because I couldn't get my muscles to move off of the chair. I called him twice with no answer. I went and sat on the chair again, looking at the door for another couple hours, calling his phone every 5 minutes on the dot until my calls went straight to his answering machine.

That was when the water works really started.

I just couldn't stop crying. I had no idea where he was, what he was thinking, when or if he was going to come back tonight.

I felt a hole that I had never felt before. Nothing like this had ever happened to us before. I mean sure we got into fights but we always talked about it, we never just walked away or hung up the phone. And today Edward just left. He said two words to me and just left. From the time Jake left until the time that he did, he never even touched me. I just want him to come back.

The next time I looked at the clock it was 11:00 pm. I was out of tears by this point. I was unbelievably hungry but didn't want to eat anything. I mustered all the strength I could and walked from the family room past the kitchen into the bedroom. I looked at the bed and couldn't stand to think that maybe I would be sleeping alone tonight. That thought made me cry again and I walked over to the closet.

I slid off my dress, leaving it in a pile on the floor, and took a black pair of Edward's sweatpants and one of his t-shirts and put them on.

I walked back into the family room and lay down on the couch, drying my face with Edward's shirt. I swore that I would stay awake and wait for him even if I had to wait all night and all day. But having Edward's scent on his t-shirt, feeling like he should be so close to me, yet knowing he was nowhere near, just made me silently cry myself to sleep as my eyes grew heavy watching the door.

* * *

I woke up and something felt different. I reached my arm out and it didn't touch the space between the coffee table and the couch like I expected it to. I opened my eyes and sat up slowly. I realized I was sleeping on Edward's side of the bed, my head on his pillow with the comforter tucked in around me. I looked over at the clock on Edward's nightstand that said it was a little after 3am. I saw a light from underneath the closed bedroom door. I knew that the light was off before and I definitely don't sleep walk so it only meant one thing. Edward was home. Edward put me here. Edward came home and took me from the couch and tucked me in to bed.

I got myself together and took a deep breath. I knew I had to be prepared for whatever awaited me.

I quietly got out of bed and opened the door into the hallway. I walked down past the kitchen, seeing that he wasn't there, and walked into the family room. And there he was, sleeping on the couch where I had been, with his jacket thrown over the arm of the couch and his shoes tossed on the floor by the chair. My heart dropped.

_What the hell is he doing? Why did he move me just to sleep on the damn couch? _

I tiptoe over to the couch. He is lying on his side, his back touching the back of the couch, with his arms thrown off the couch awkwardly. I could tell that he hadn't been sleeping for too long or too deeply because I didn't hear his small, quiet snore when he exhaled.

I just couldn't help myself and climbed onto the couch facing him and crawled into his outstretched arms. From this angle I could see his face more clearly. There were circles under his eyes that looked rather dark and I ran my fingers lightly over them. There was a shadow over his left cheekbone but I figured it was just from the light. I tucked my face into his chest and tried my best not to wake him up.

Who knows what he's thinking. It may not be something I want to hear but I just want to sit here with him for a while.

A few minutes later, I think I may have snuggled a little too close because I felt him stir next to me and I looked up to see him looking down at me. His eyes look puffier now that he has his eyes open and he looks so broken that I start to cry again. I lightly bring my hands up to his face and his eyes close softly. I wait for them to open again. When they do, they look sadder than before.

"Edward what are you doing" I say quietly, with a few tears silently dropping down my face. "Why are you on the couch?" I ask, trying to be more specific in case he didn't understand my meaning.

Edward just looks at me and doesn't say a word.

I can't stand it to not know what he is thinking. I can't help but think that he is going to leave me. He is going to tell me that he has decided that I should be with Jake and that he doesn't want me anymore. At this point I will beg if I have to. I can't lose him that much I know. I wouldn't survive. This night proved that to me.

"Don't leave me." I whimper into his chest. I can feel Edward slowly turn his head down into my hair.

"What?" He asks so softly that I barely hear him. I can feel the vibrations from his voice in my hair.

"Don't leave me. Please don't leave me I'll do anything. I'll tell my parents about us right now and if they don't like it they can shove it. I'll cut off Jake completely. Anything I'll do anything just please don't leave me."

I'm crying uncontrollably now and sobbing into his shirt and gripping his body with my fingertips, hoping that if he decides to get up and walk out that I could forcibly make him stay. Edward brings his hands up and grips my head, bringing it up to face him. His eyebrows are narrowed angrily, yet he still looks like he could cry.

"How could ask me that? How could you ever ask me that?" Edward says in a rough whisper.

"I thought that was why you left…" I said softy, looking back up at him.

"Bella. Listen to me and hear me good. I **never** thought of leaving you not for one second. I never have and I never will. I will **always**, do you hear me, **always** be here. If you want me of course." He says the last part in almost a whisper and slides one hand from my face back into my hair.

"Edward of course I want you. How can you say that?" I say, as Edward wipes the tears from under my eyes with his thumbs. Edward brings his face closer to mine so there is less than an inch between us.

"Your eyes are so swollen. How long have you been crying?" Edward whispers against my lips, lightly running his thumbs over my eyes.

I can't take it anymore and pull myself closer to Edward so that our lips finally connect. At this point I don't care if he pulls away I just need a connection with him. But he doesn't pull away. He slides his hands down to my waist and pulls me closer. I sigh against his lips and he moves one hand from my waist to pull us into a sitting position. I move my legs to either side of him.

The kiss starts out slow. His hands move up my sides and through my hair as he plants small kisses over my entire face and neck, whispering my name or a small 'I love you' after every kiss. It was like he was trying to memorize my entire body just by touch. I ran my fingers through his hair soothingly.

We both felt the same need for connection that we never really did before. When we were away from each other during the school year, there was a need when we reunited again, but that was more of an animalistic need I guess you could say. Our relationship had never been jeopardized like this before. Probably because no one knew about our relationship. This need was more emotional. It was as though we both had to prove that we were meant to be together. That one of us being with any other person on the planet besides each other would just be wrong.

I lightly whisper Edward's name into his hair and hold on tightly around his neck when he stands up and starts walking out of the family room and into the hallway.

I lean down and press soft kisses into Edward's neck and one of his hands slides underneath the shirt that I'm wearing and I pull myself up from his neck to let him take the shirt off of me and drop it on the floor in the hallway. I lean my head down into the crook of his neck again as one of his hands finds its way down to my butt and the other is still wrapped around my waist. My hands tangle in his hair and I feel Edward stop walking as we reach the bed.

I lift my head up and our lips connect again. Edward slowly lowers me down onto the bed, our lips never disconnecting. As we crawl backwards to the middle of the bed, I grab the hem of Edward's shirt and he lets me pull it over his head.

I could tell that Edward was going to take this slow tonight. He said that if we were going to do this, that we had to do it right. And right now we both needed it. We **needed **to show the other person how much we loved them, in a way that words could not explain.

When we get to the middle of the bed Edward pulls back and looks at me. I can still see the sadness in his eyes and I place my hands on his face. Edward lowers his head to kiss me again and I wrap my arms around his neck. He slowly moves his lips down from mine to my neck and across my collarbone. His hands slowly caress up and down my sides before reaching behind me and unclasping my red bra. He slides the straps down my shoulders and throws the bra to the side of the room. Without moving off of me, Edward closes his eyes and slowly kisses down my chest and through the valley between my breasts before nuzzling my right breast with his nose. I keep my arms around his neck but move my hands into his hair. I let my head fall back against the pillows when Edward moves his hands from my sides to my breasts, giving them the attention I had been aching for. Edward replaces one of his hands with his mouth and I moan and pull his head closer to me. After a few minutes Edward switches his hand and his mouth, making me moan again. Slowly Edward kisses down my stomach to my belly button where he stops and slides his hands down to the band on his sweatpants that I'm wearing. He looks up at me for the first time in a while and I lift my hips, telling him to take them off.

He slides the sweatpants slowly down my legs and tosses them to the side. He adjusts himself so that he is kneeling directly between my legs before slowly kissing up each leg and leaving a small but deep kiss on my inner thighs, skipping right over where I need him most. I can't take it anymore and slide myself forward, latching my legs around his hips and pulling myself up into a sitting position in his lap. He seemed startled by my sudden movement, but places his hands on my face. I wrap my arms around his neck.

"You're wearing too many clothes." I say quietly. He nods against my forehead and kisses me deeply, leaning forward and placing me back on the bed. He places his hands on the bed on both sides of my head, our lips still connected. I reach down and find the button on his pants, quickly undoing it and sliding down the zipper. I push as much of them down his legs as I can, reaching my feet up to bring the rest down his legs with my toes. He lifts a leg and pushes them off of the end of the bed, leaving him in only his boxers.

I slide my hands up his chest, being sure to hit every indent from his muscles on the way up, making him shiver underneath my fingertips. I stop my hands when they get to his forearms, grasping them and pulling him down to kiss me. He moves from putting all of his weight on his hands, to his elbows, which put some of his weight on my body as well. I could feel his hardness against me and I moaned, bucking my hips against his. Edward moaned at this, deepening our kiss, and grasped my hips with his hands. He slid down my body and planted small kisses along the top of my red lace panties that had matched my bra. Slowly, he hooked his fingers in the sides of my panties and slid them down my legs, throwing them to the side. He was kneeling now and I hooked my toes in the sides of his boxers so that when he crawled up my body, they came off. Edward kicked them from the bed as well.

For a moment we just lay there looking at each other. We both wanted this. And we both knew that this would not be fucking. We both felt broken and hurt by the events of the day and needed each other on a level that I don't think we ever had before. We needed to be connected in every and any way that we could.

Edward moved so that he was between my legs, sitting at my entrance, before he kissed me again. I kneaded my hands into his hair.

"Edward please" I said against his lips.

At this, Edward slowly entered me. I don't know if he was bigger than I thought he was, or I was just extremely tight, but it was a little uncomfortable at first. But it went away once Edward started moving. Slow and deep. He reached down and grabbed one of my legs, hitching it over his hip. Edward bent his head down and kissed me again, my hands clawing at his shoulders, his back, anything I could grab onto. Edward grabbed my other leg and hitched it over his hip as well, and that pulled him inside me as deep as he could go. It took too much energy to really kiss now. Our mouths were just open against each others, breathing deeply.

We both quickly came, screaming each other's names, Edward collapsing on top of me. It felt good to have all his weight on me, even though he was rather heavy. It was a feeling I had never really had before. I mean I had sex once before, but it was a huge mistake looking back on it, and it wasn't with someone I loved. This was completely different and felt better than anything else in my life ever had.

After a few minutes, Edward pulled out of me and rolled onto his back, with me on top of him. I set my elbows over his shoulders and ran my hands through his hair. Edward rested his hands on my forearms.

"Bella I love you. I don't think I've ever said it like this so I am now. Bella I love you so fucking much I can't even put it into words." Edward says, looking me in eyes.

"I love you so fucking much too." I say, smiling lightly at him.

Edward moves his arms to wrap around me and I rest my head on his chest. Edward leans forward and kisses my head. I can feel him smiling against my hair, but I don't say anything. I just smile against his chest. In a few minutes we were both asleep.

* * *

**I've started adding the artists of the songs for every chapter that I have been using as title's and some inspiration :) Check back at other chapters cause im trying to add them as well. Don't forget to check my profile for pictures for chapters**

**Never Think: Robert Pattinson**

**PS. Where Edward went and what was going through his head will all be explained next chapter. Never fear. Thanks for the heads up Sunnie79 3**


	11. Where I Stood

**Where I Stood**

**BPOV**

I woke up this morning in almost the same position as I did last night. I had slid down Edward's body a little bit more, but his grip on my waist was still tight. Our legs were intertwined and my face was in Edward's chest and his face was in my hair. I could see my phone on the nightstand. The screen said that I had 5 texts from Jake. I turned my face in the other direction and ignored them. I lifted my chin up and placed it on Edward's chest, looking at his face. His eyes still looked a little puffy, but the dark circles underneath them were fading. I ran my fingers over his face. I felt his chest rise with an intake of breath and his eyes lightly opened.

We just lay there looking at each other. Eventually Edward moved his hands up from my waist to run them through my hair.

"You might want to call Alice." He says softly.

I give him a quizzical look. Why would he bring up Alice at a time like this?

"To tell her that you're taking the day off." Edward says like it should have been obvious to me, occupied with twirling the lightly curled ends of my hair in his fingers.

I nod my head as Edward reaches for my phone. He sees the screen and glances at me. He turns the screen towards me and I look at it. Now it says I have 6 texts from Jake. I slide my knees on either side of Edward's hips and place my hands on the side of his face. I kiss his forehead and pull back giving him my 'really Edward?' look. He smiles and pulls my face back down to him with a deep kiss. I pull back from him and he hands me the phone. I slide my legs back and rest the side of my face on his chest with Edward's arms wrapping around my waist again. I dialed Alice's cell number and it went to her answering machine. I find myself absentmindedly playing with Edward's hair as I leave a message.

"Hi Alice it's Bella. I can't come into work today so if you could pick up some of my work today I would really appreciate it. Okay bye." I hang up the phone and toss it to the floor.

I place my chin back on Edward's chest and we both just look at each other. Now we had the entire day and there was no rush. After a while Edward sits up and slides out of bed from underneath me. I had completely forgotten that we were both naked.

_And God was he beautiful. _

I sat up and wrapped the sheet around me. Edward grabbed my hands in the midst of wrapping myself and let the sheet fall, revealing all of me to him.

"Don't. "He says.

"Shower?" He asks, glancing down slightly at my chest.

I nod my head.

Without saying another word, Edward scooped me up in his arms and walked us into the bathroom. He set me on the countertop next to the sink and walked into the shower, turning it on and testing the water until it was the right temperature.

_Damn he has a really good butt. _

I jumped down from the counter and walked up behind him, still testing the water temperature, and wrapped my arms around his waist. Edward reached one of his hands down to grab one of mine and brought it up to kiss the knuckles gently. He turned around in my arms and I remembered his hand from yesterday. I take my hand out of his and grabbed his other hand that I remembered had been cut up and examined it. It looked terrible. Worse than yesterday if that's possible. I was about to scold him for not letting me fix it yesterday, but he put his finger under my chin before I could say anything and he shook his head telling me not to worry about it. Under the bathroom lights I could see his face more clearly. His cheekbone that I thought had looked bruised yesterday looked even worse now as well. I didn't remember him leaving with that bruise. I would have remembered that. Before I could think about it too much he took a hold of my hands again and walked backwards into the shower, pulling me with him.

He stopped when he reached the spray of the shower and pulled me close to his chest so that we were both underneath the water. Edward reached down to the corner of the shower and grabbed his body wash. He squirted some into hand and took a good five minutes to wash my entire body, head to toe, before I did the same to him. By the time I had finished him, we both couldn't control ourselves and Edward grabbed my face and kissed me hard. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he walked us backwards and my back hit the shower wall. Edward lifted me up so that my legs could wrap around his waist.

_Just like that first night_

And let's just say that we christened that shower pretty well. It was a little rougher than the night before and I think I prefer it that way.

By the time we had both calmed down and I slid down from Edward's waist, my legs were a little wobbly and I couldn't really keep my balance. Edward noticed at scooped me up in his arms, carrying me from the shower and wrapping me in a towel before setting me back on the countertop. He dried himself off, rubbing his hair with the towel before wrapping his towel around his waist and walking over to me.

Edward kissed my forehead and picked me up off the counter again and carried me back into the bedroom. He set me on the edge of the bed and walked over to the closet. He grabbed a pair of boxer shorts and a t-shirt and walked back over to me. He pulled his t-shirt over my head before dropping his towel and pulling his boxers on.

"Edward do you think you can get me some underwear?" I ask him, leaning my hands back on the bed and pointing to the top drawer of the dresser where I kept all of my undergarments.

He smiled and walked over to the drawer, pulling it open. It takes him about .5 seconds to find what he's looking for. He pulls out the blue lace thong that he had commented on the second day I stayed here. He tosses them to me and I stand up and have just enough time to pull them on before me knees go weak again.

Edward chuckled softly before picking me up again. I sighed and buried my head into the crook of his neck.

"I bet you're feeling pretty good about yourself right now." I mumble into his skin. I don't think I had ever really realized how soft Edward's skin is. Especially after a shower when it's so warm and smells fresh and a little minty.

We got to the kitchen and Edward kissed my head, placing me on the island and starting to make breakfast. I slowly dropped onto my side, lying with the side of my head on the cold tile of the island.

_He is really is so beautiful _

I think I like the curves in his back the best. As I am contemplating the greatness of Edward's back as compared to his backside, the house phone rings. I turn myself onto my back and reach for the phone on the end of the island.

"Hello?" I ask, now staring at Edward's butt.

"Bella, its Jake I…."

I hung up the phone, still staring at Edward. He's mixing yogurt and granola in two small glasses. It's kinda fancy looking and as I'm trying to think of the occasion, the phone rings again.

"Hello?"

"You should at least talk to your stupid boyfriend about…" Jake spits out quickly into the phone.

I consider hanging up, but decide to let him finish his thought process this time.

"…Coming out of fucking nowhere and beating people up! I'm telling you he has an anger problem! One punch is fucking enough! Bella? Are you there?" Jake is talking frantically into the phone now.

I laugh to myself about what Jake had just told me. Edward beat him up last night at some point when he was gone.

It brings my thought process back to Edward leaving. I don't want to think about it but I know I'll have to soon. And talk about it. I have to ask Edward no matter how much it might hurt me.

I turn my head to look at Edward again and am startled to find his face directly above mine.

"What's so funny love?" He asks with a smirk on his face before he starts kissing down my neck. I chuckle softly again, looking at the bruise on his cheekbone.

_I guess Jake put up some sort of a fight._

"I think it's for you." I say with a small smile.

Edward takes the phone from me, but moves down my body to my stomach and slowly lifts up my shirt and leaves soft kisses across my stomach.

"Hello?" Edward mumbles into the phone.

"Hello? Who's this? Edward?" I can hear Jake screaming into the phone from where I'm laying.

"Jake, I thought we talked about this." Edward says calmly, kissing his way up my stomach to just below my breasts as I ran my fingers through his hair.

Jake starts to yell something into the phone but I can't tell what it is because I am too focused on Edward's mouth on me.

"Look Jake," Edward interrupts,

"I'd love to stay and chat but I'm a little busy right now." Edward muffles into the phone before hanging up and tossing the phone onto the counter.

I grab his head and pull it up so that his chin is resting on my stomach. I decide that I should start out slow.

"So you wanna tell me about this bruise?" I ask, pointing to his cheekbone.

"You sound like you already have the right idea."

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Either way I want **you** to tell me."

"I may have had an encounter with Jake last night." He mumbles, turning face back into my stomach.

"Ooh a sexual encounter?" I ask sarcastically.

"No love, don't you remember that was with you." Edward says, looking back up at me with a smile and rolling his eyes. "Although it was a physical encounter."

"Edward come on" I whine, putting my hands firmly on his face, forcing him to look at me. I just wanted him to cut to the chase.

"Well last night I left just to walk around a bit and clear my head. After everything Jake said and all. I just needed to think. I made it all the way to Central Park and realized that walking around in the air just wasn't doing to for me. Plus there were some scary people." Edward says, trying to lighten the mood.

"Not funny." I say seriously. It still hurts to think about how he left and everything.

"Sorry love. Well as I said walking around just wasn't doing it for me, so I found a bar and got a drink."

I raise my eyebrows at him.

"It was only a few drinks love, nothing too strong just a gin and tonic." Edward assures me.

I'm glad to be reassured that he wasn't intoxicated when we had sex for the first time.

"I thought all through those drinks and finally decided to come back. I was almost home when I saw Jake a few blocks away. Now I had seen him there when I left but I assumed that he was just taking a long time to leave and quite frankly too many things were going through my head to really care at that time.

"So when I still saw him there, naturally I was kinda pissed. I could see that he was obviously trying to decide whether to come back to the apartment or not. Then he saw me walking towards him and some words were exchanged between us…"

"What kind of words?" I interrupt sternly.

"Nothing that should be repeated in front a lady."

"Who said I was a lady?"

"I did. Now anyways, words were exchanged and I couldn't help myself and pushed him and then he pushed back and then we kinda got in a fist fight."

"Kinda? You **kinda** got in a fist fight? What does that even mean?" I ask, a little loudly.

"Alight fine it wasn't **kinda**, it just **was** a fist fight. Naturally with my superior boxing skills I ended up on top…"

"Naturally, naturally."

"And then I laid down some rules that I expected him to follow if he didn't want me to find him and kill him. One of those was calling here again."

"Do I get to hear the others?"

"Nope. It won't matter anyway because I expect them not to be broken. I have to say he did put up a good fight at the beginning though."

"I can see that…" I say rather quietly running my finger over a new bruise I found under his chin. "You know you should really ice these." I say.

"Don't worry about it. I've had worse." He whispers, trying to get me off my Nursing path.

Once he came home on spring break with tons of bruises from a fight he **conveniently **forgot to mention to me on the phone and I wouldn't stop trying to take care of the cuts and bruises for his entire break. He says he doesn't like when I get like that, but I don't think he would have minded as much if I put on that nurse uniform that Alice wanted me to wear.

It was then that I realized that he skipped over the most important parts of the story; **why** he left.

"Why did you leave" I ask quietly.

"Bella I really don't think that…."

"No." I say rather forcefully. "I want to know." I say much quieter.

I wait as Edward takes a deep breath before answering.

"I couldn't help but think that there was some truth in what Jake was saying. I mean he couldn't have pulled all that from out of his ass or anything. There must have been some truth to it. I just needed to think. I wasn't sure if I was good for you. I certainly don't want to ruin your relationship with your parents or anything of that sort. I want to give you everything you could ever need or wish for. I needed to think and to make sure that it was realistic. That I could give you all that. I wasn't sure if I was enough. After what Jake said it seemed that all I could give you was me. Maybe Jake could give you more than I could.

Edward takes another breath and briefly pinches the bridge of his nose before continuing.

"In the end I realized that even if I can't give you everything, I am far too selfish to let you leave." He says, placing the side of his face on my stomach, still looking up at me. "I like to tell myself that if you ever wanted to leave that I would let you leave without a fight. I don't think I could though, realistically."

I smile and run my hands though his hair.

"Edward **you** are everything. I don't need anything else. We could be living in a box in Central Park and I wouldn't give a shit. And it's a very good thing that you won't let me leave, because if I ever left you, I would be out of my mind and you would need to cure my insanity."

"You could just go to a hospital."

"Nope. You are the only cure." I say, trying to get him out of his serious, slightly grumpy zone that I accidently dragged him into by making tell me why he left.

He smiles and hands me one of the glasses with a spoon before hopping up onto the counter and placing my head on his lap.

Maybe in the end we really should be thanking Jake. In our entire relationship he has pushed us to every limit that we needed. He pushed us to finally get together as a couple, and he pushed us to the most primal and basic of connections. But it was just the connection that we needed.

* * *

**So let me know what you think. I have two questions I would like to know your opinion on;**

**1. Would you like an Edward point of view next or should I keep going with Bella?**

**2. I was planning some fluff for the next chapter and then some more angst, but I'm kind of feeling that it's too soon. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.**

**So I'm kinda stuck on where to take this story right now. PS whatever you say in reviews I will most likely take your advise and do. If I only get one review, then your ideas are what I will do! Thanks all!**

**Where I Stood- Missy Higgins**


	12. Bubbly

**Bubbly**

**EPOV**

As hard as it is for me to say, I think that Jake may have actually helped our relationship. Again. Bella and I have never been so connected as we are now. For days after the whole Jake incident we couldn't stand to be out of each other's sight.

And I seriously think that I may be addicted to sex now. Sometimes it's all I think about. The day that she went back to work, all I thought about was her all day. I couldn't even get some of my own stuff done because I would start thinking about her and then little Edward would cause big Edward some problems.

I just can't stand to be away from her anymore. I mean when she was living in Forks it was hard enough. I doubt if I could survive that kind of distance anymore. After living with her for almost two months, I don't want her to live anywhere else. I want to come home to her. I want to see her cooking in the kitchen in the morning. I want to sleep with her face in my chest. I don't even want to think about the day when she packs up all her things and leaves. I've become used to her stuff all mixed up with my stuff. It's my normal and kind of a comfort.

What I hate the most about when she's gone is the silence. It's deafening. I never really noticed it until she lived with me. When she's here, I can hear or see her moving around. When she's gone it's just me. It's just the silence. I can't even hear her heartbeat when she sleeps next to me, just my fingers on the keyboard.

That must have been what it was like for her when I left. I mean when I hear the silence, I comfort myself with the fact that she will be home soon. But Bella didn't know that. She didn't know when or if I was coming back. I feel terrible about leaving like that. I regret it every day. I regret that I ever let the thoughts that I had creep into my mind.

When we made love that night, it was better than I had ever thought of in my mind. We didn't need candles or roses or music or any of that cliché stuff that I thought that we would need to make it important. Bella was right. All we needed was us. I think I caved that night because I realized that. All that was important was us. That night I just blocked out the rest of the world and all that mattered was Bella.

I couldn't help the need to be inside her. It wasn't in an animalistic way; it was so that we could be connected like we never had been before, for our **bodies** to be physically connected. And it was perfect. Bella was perfect. Bella is perfect.

I woke up that night and saw Bella asleep on my chest. She looked so peaceful and content. I thought about waking her up and asking her to marry me right then and there. But I thought better of it. She might think that I asked her just because he had sex or just because I was afraid of losing her. Which I was afraid of and still am a little bit I guess. But I'll ask her. One day I'll ask her.

Right now I'm lounging on the couch, faking watching CNN while I'm really watching Bella make lunch. I swear the girl can make anything. She should have her own show on the Food Network. Today she is making a pasta salad and it looks so good I almost want to take a bath in it. I'm an entire room away and I bet it looks 50 times better up close. I watch her spoon the salad into two bowls, put forks in them and grab two cokes. I quickly look away back at the screen as she walks over into the family room. She places one bowl on the table and grabs the two coke cans from underneath her arms before putting the second bowl down as well.

"You know I would have helped you with all that." I say.

"It's fine. I got it over here didn't I?" Bella says with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

_She is just too cute_

I smile and she taps my feet to tell me to take them off the couch so that she can sit down. I comply and drop my legs off the couch and lean forward to grab both bowls and hand one to her. She sits cross legged on the couch and I swing my legs up onto her lap.

She looks at me as if to say 'What the hell do you think you're doing' and I make a puppy face at her. She laughs and shakes her head, starting to eat her pasta salad.

"Why are you watching CNN?" she asks after she swallows her food.

"I don't know. It's just where I landed I guess." I say looking down into my bowl.

_It's like she knows! She knows I was watching her ass and not the TV!_

Just then the phone rings.

_Thank God! Saved by the bell_

Bella answers the phone on the side table, still giggling.

"Hello?" she asks.

_I love when she laughs like that. Hehe. It makes me laugh._

"Yes, speaking" She says.

"O….Yea…Okay yes I'll let you know…Thanks!"She says and hangs up the phone.

"Who was that?" I ask.

"NYU. They wanted to know if I wanted to confirm my dorm or not. They said that they are running lower on room than they thought they were and don't want to have to do as many triples as it looks like they'll have to. They said whoever doesn't take a room will get a big knock off on their tuition. I can call them back in a few days though. I have to call my parents and make sure that they paid the bill for it and everything."

Immediately my heart dropped. This was it. This is what I didn't want to think about. Bella leaving. And she was making plans on leaving right now. I didn't mean to say it but it just came out.

"Don't leave." I say, looking back down into my empty bowl.

"What" Bella asked quietly, a little taken aback.

"Don't leave. Stay here with me. You can still get to school every day and I don't want you to leave." I say with a little poutiness in my voice.

"Really? Are you sure?" Bella asks.

"Only if you want to." I say, lifting my head up to look at her.

"Well yes of course I'll stay with you!" she says, putting her bowl on the floor and moving from her position on the couch to flop on top of my chest.

"Really?" I ask, running my hands through her hair.

"Well yea. I mean I never thought that you'd ask me. I was kind of dreading having to leave and everything…" she trails off.

"Thank God I was dreading that too." I say kissing her hair. She giggles lightly against my chest.

"We're living together." She giggles.

"Yes. And?" I ask.

"We're living together." She says again.

"Well yes we have been for a while now. I'm glad you finally noticed." I laugh.

"No Edward. **We're living together**. When it was just for the summer there was a deadline, you know. It was like summer camp. But now we are **actually** living together." She says.

I smile. Bella's right again. I basically just asked her to move in with me, but then again not really. Most of her stuff is already here and she does sleep here every night and she does have a key already. But it does seem different. More serious. More final.

"Wait…this is like summer camp?" I ask. Bella lifts her chin up and puts in on my chest.

"O come on you know what I mean." Bella says.

"I don't think this is like summer camp. I think at most summer camps this would be frowned upon." I say, grabbing her ass. Bella squealed, obviously surprised by my action.

"I think your right. This probably would be too." She smiles, kissing me hard and grinding her pelvis into mine.

And just as things are about to get really good,

"O damn its 7:00 already! Come on we have get ready!" Bella says, jumping off of me.

"What? Why?" I groan.

"Remember we told Alice we would have dinner with her and Jasper tonight at that club downtown." She says, trying to pull my hand out of hers as I try and pull her back on the couch.

"Aww geez is that tonight?" I groan again.

"Yes! Now come on we can't be late!" She says pulling back against me, getting me off of the couch. "We can finish what we started later." She says, wagging her eyebrows at me.

"Nooooo I wanna do it nowwww." I say, acting a bit childish.

"If you get ready now you can pick my bra…." She says in a sing-song voice trying to get me to follow her.

_It's good enough for me_

I follow her into the bedroom and go straight for her lingerie drawer while she heads into the closet.

"It has to be strapless though!" She yells from inside the closet.

She just made my job a little bit tougher but I'm up for the challenge. As I'm looking through the drawer all I can find is just one plain black strapless bra.

"Bella I think you only have one" I say, unable to hide the disappointment in my voice.

_Well that's no fun_

And then I hit the jackpot. It's no secret that I have a weakness for the color blue on Bella. And of all the panties that she has worn, and I'll tell you I've seen most of them, I had never seen these. There was no way that I had missed them and they were shoved in the back of the drawer so she probably didn't even know she had them. They were tiny fishnet power blue boyshorts with navy blue ribbon. I knew for a fact it would not cover her entire ass.

_And we have a winner!_

Bella walked out of the closet with a black dress flung over her shoulder and holding a pair of black heels. I turned around and placed the black bra on her shoulder over the dress and held up the panties between my thumb and index finger with both hands.

"Bella, why has this particular pair not made an appearance yet?" I ask.

"I didn't know that I had them actually. Are you sure those are mine?" She asks, staring at them in my hands as though she was trying to dissect them with her eyes.

"Well I know they're not mine and if they aren't yours then they must belong to the landlord. Now I would hope that a short, bald, overweight man in his late 50's wouldn't be wearing such things, but you never can tell these days I guess." I said as though I was considering it as an actual possibility.

"Eww gross Edward! I so did not need that visual burned in my brain for all eternity!" Bella says squinting her eyes to try and erase the mental image.

"Well then they must be yours. And since you put limits on my bra choice, I decided that I had the right to choose another article for you. It was my reward for getting off the couch after all." I say.

"Well I guess it's only fair." Bella says with smile taking them from me and placing them on her shoulder with the rest of her outfit.

"I think those may be in the running for my favorites." I whisper in Bella's ear, tapping her ass as she walks into the bathroom. She lets out little squeal again.

When she reaches the bathroom door she flicks on the lights and turns around to look at me. Before she closes the door she says,

"Why sir, I am a lady!" In the most ridiculous British accent I ever heard in my life.

I laugh and walk over to the closet. I put on my black jeans and my white button down shirt, rolling up the sleeves. Unlike Bella, it takes me about 3 seconds to get dressed so I flop down on the bed to wait for her.

The bathroom door opened and my jaw dropped at what I saw.

Bella was wearing a black strapless dress that stopped three inches above her knees and hugged every curve of her body. She had let her hair down and the light curls cascaded down her back.

She walked over to me and dropped her shoes on the bed next to me. Bella put one finger underneath my jaw and pushed my mouth closed.

"Thank you" she said. "You look pretty appealing yourself"

Bella walked over to the dresser and started rummaging through her small jewelry box. I walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist, placing my chin on her shoulder.

"Do we have to go?" I ask, pressing a soft kiss into her shoulder.

"Yes." She says, now holding the ends of the chain on a necklace of a silver key. The head of the key was a heart with a small diamond in the corner.

I gave that to her for our two year anniversary. She doesn't know that it's a diamond though; I told her it was just a small crystal. Bella hates when I spend money on her. I really wanted to get her the key that was completely encrusted with diamonds, but I knew that she wouldn't like it if I spent that much.

I take the ends of the necklace from her and fasten it around her neck.

"We could just stay here. You wouldn't have to worry about all this clothing. You wouldn't have to wear anything actually. Except those panties." I say with a sigh, hoping to change her mind.

"Yes well I would prefer to stay here as well, but we **have** to go. I promised Alice that we would. We almost never see her anymore." Bella says turning around to look at me with her arms wrapped around my waist.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." I say in a low voice.

"It is a bad thing!" She giggles.

Bella pulls some silver hoops out of her jewelry box and quickly slips them through her ears. She rushes over to her nightstand and throws her phone in her purse, throwing it over her shoulder. She grabs both heels off of the bed in one hands and grabs my hand as she rushes out of the room.

"Come on! We should have left fifteen minutes ago!" She says running down the hall past the kitchen pulling me behind her.

I laugh as she hops on one foot in front of the door to slip her shoes on. She grabs her key off the table in the foyer and pulls me out of the apartment.

"You are really something else." I say, still laughing.

* * *

**I got some requests for some Edward Point of View. I also have decided to alternate between Bella and Edward points of view for a few chapters.**

**Don't forget to check out the pictures of Bella's outfit, lingerie, and necklace on my profile!**

**Bubbly-Colbie Calliet**


	13. One Of Those Girls

**One Of Those Girls**

**BPOV**

The drive over to the restaurant was quite a struggle. Edward could barely stop himself from pulling over and doing me in the backseat. I almost begged him to pull over too.

_Ugh it would have been great too…_

We had to settle for Edward driving with one hand so that our fingers could sit intertwined between us.

Edward parked the car a few blocks from the restaurant and quickly leapt from the driver's seat to open my car door. I took his outstretched hand and almost hit my head on the top of the car when he pulled up to kiss him.

I wrapped my arms around his neck to pull him closer to me as he wrapped his arm around my waist and shut my car door. Edward pushed his tongue into my mouth and I pushed my body forward into his. At this Edward groaned and pushed my entire body against the side of the car.

I seriously could have jumped on him right then and told him to just take me in the backseat, but I suddenly became aware that we were not alone and that would not have been appropriate.

"Edward we're in public!" I whisper, out of breath.

"No we're not. We're in a parking garage." He says as his lips trail down my neck to my collarbone.

"It still counts. Plus the parking assistant over there is watching us." I say. He seemed to be quite engrossed with our activity too.

"I don't care. Let him watch." Edward said, moving his hands around to my ass.

"Edward" I moaned, for not wanting to stop yet knowing that we had to.

I pulled his face up to look at me.

"Alice and Jasper are waiting." I say with a sigh.

He nods and reaches down to hand me my purse that I had dropped when he pulled me out of the car. I pull the strap over my shoulder and Edward takes my hand, once again blending our fingers together so you couldn't tell whose fingers were whose.

_Well actually Edward's fingers are bigger and the knuckles are kinda banged up from boxing and my fingers are the tiny ones. Edward's hand could probably swallow my hand. _

As we walked past the man who had been watching us earlier, Edward took his hand out of mine and threw his arm around my neck, glaring at him. I giggled as I watched the man's face go from voyeuristic to scared shitless in 2 seconds.

We walked the rest of the way to the restaurant with Edward's arm around my shoulders and my arm around his waist trying not the step on the cracks in the sidewalk.

_Childish? Probably. Fun? Absolutely. _

We only stopped when Edward thought some guy looked at me the wrong way. Then he would move his arm around my waist and pull me tighter against his side.

* * *

We walked into the restaurant and didn't see Alice or Jasper, so we made our way over to the bar.

The restaurant was very modern. It was dark except for colored lights, like the ones in Starbucks, over each of the tables and booths. The bar was clear and there were many Starbucks lights above the bar. The entire place was packed with people. There was only one stool open and Edward lifted me up onto the stool and ordered us drinks from the bartender.

Edward's eyes kept shifting to the people around us, particularly to the men. I could tell that he was trying to ward off any wandering eyes. When the bartender slid us our drinks I noticed he had ordered me a Shirley temple and a gin and tonic for himself.

Back in high school, Edward used to drink quite a bit. And not any gin and tonic crap, he drank the hard stuff. I always hated when he got drunk and stuff. Let's just say I received many a drunken phone call asking me to come pick him up. Those were definitely not fun.

There was one night where I went to pick him up at someone's house and there were these stupid girls hanging off of him and I was uber pissed. After that night I told him that he shouldn't count on me to come and get him all the time, therefore I wasn't going to pick up his drunken ass anymore. I was tired of always coming to get him when I knew he probably just did some shit with everyone of those girls. It hurt too much.

So one night he was drunk and called me to come get him. I told him to figure something else out because I wasn't coming. Little did I know that he would decide to drive himself home. He got in an accident. Luckily it wasn't terrible and he only needed a few stitches, but it was enough to make me swear off drinking for a long time.

When we first got together, I decided that I had to be honest with him about that night and how much it tore me up that I could have prevented it. After that he stopped drinking the hard stuff. And I'm not complaining.

I hand Edward his drink.

"Edward stop it." I say as I take a sip of my drink. "I'm here with **you**. I'm going home with **you**. You have **nothing** to worry about."

Edward smiles and takes his drink.

"I know love." He says leaning down to kiss me.

Edward pulls away and glances around at the men he had been glaring at earlier as if to say 'Back off mother fuckers! She's mine so deal with it!'

Even though his protectiveness can be smothering at times, there are times like this when I just have to love it.

That was when I saw Alice pushing through the crowd, hauling Jasper behind her.

"There you guys are! Where have you been?" Alice yelps with a smile. That's what you have to love about Alice. Even though we were late, she was still happy that we came.

"I'm so sorry Alice…" I started but was interrupted.

"I'm not." Edward whispers under his breath.

I glare at him and Alice just flashes him a sarcastic smile as Jasper tries to control his laughter behind her.

"ANYWAYS" Alice says, "We got that table over there"

Alice says, standing on her tiptoes in her electric blue stilettos to point to a table in the corner.

"We are going to try and get drinks. It was impossible earlier because there are so many other people here!"

"Really? We got some right away." I mention.

"Well honey that's because you are the gorgeous couple." Alice says in a baby voice, taking my chin in her hand.

"Ahaha okay Alice okay!" I giggle.

Edward takes my hand and leads me over to the table and sits me down like a gentleman.

_My own personal Clark Gable ___

He makes a move to sit next to me and sees a little note on the table in front of the chair.

_Dear Edward,_

_Don't even think about sitting here. It's my turn to sit next to Bella. You can sit across from her. _

_Love Alice _

Edward growls under his breath and stomps to the other side of the table to sit across from me. He slumps in his chair and starts to pout, crossing his arms over his chest. I giggle and remind him with my foot that we can still play footsies. He smiles and me a sits up in his chair. And that was when I saw her.

She had blonde hair that had obviously been dyed and lots of black eyeliner and glossy pink lips. She was wearing a red, off the shoulder, bandage dress that was so short that if she bent over, you would probably see her ass.

She pushed was stumbling away from the bar, obviously having had too much to drink, and when she saw Edward her eyes widened.

"O my god Edward!" She screamed, stumbling over toward the table.

Edward looked to her in shock before glancing back at me. She put her hands on the table to hold herself up as her gold crystal covered pumps weren't helping her to stay vertical. Once she had her balance she slid into Edward's lap.

Edward looked at me with wide eyes that conveyed that they were just as shocked as I was. She swung her arm around Edward's neck and he cringed uncomfortably. She stuck her hand out to me across the table.

"Hiii! I'm Tanya!! Who are you?" She asked quite loudly, quickly shaking my hand before putting in around Edward's neck with her other hand.

As I was about to tell her that I was Edward's girlfriend and that if she didn't extricate herself from him in 2 seconds that I would rip her to pieces, she turned away from me and back to Edward.

"So Edward it's so great to see you here! Maybe we should finish what we started that other night…" Tanya says, trying to look at him seductively.

_Wait the other night? What is she talking about?_

"Tanya I told you…." Edward started but Tanya cut him off.

"Come on! You know you want to. We had so much fun that night a couple weeks ago! I promise your girlfriend won't find out….Come on baby" Tanya cooed.

_Wait. A couple weeks ago. That was when Jake came by. That was at the beginning of the week. After that we were together every night. That could only mean that she's talking about the night he left…._

I felt tear starting to well up in my eyes. Edward looked at me frantically, realizing that I had realized what she was saying. I grabbed my bag off of the floor. Edward reaches his hand across the table to take my hand but I pulled it away. I stood up and for a second just looked at him. Edward was looking at me with a frantic look on his face with a drunken Tanya in his lap.

"Bella please it's not what you think." Edward says, trying to pry Tanya off of him.

I felt the tears start of fall and I couldn't take it. I turned and walked away, shoving through people to get out of the club and get some air.

Now I understand why Edward walked away. It's too much. There are so many things going on in your head. You can barely breathe. Your head is spinning and you don't want to hear any apologies or reasons. You just want to get out.

When I got outside I quickly realized that I couldn't be walking around the streets alone that this time of night. But I knew I couldn't go home. Alice's apartment was too far away. Then I remembered Rosalie. She had told me where she lived once at work and that if I ever needed anything, I shouldn't hesitate to just come over. Walked a few blocks to where I knew I could easily find a cab and pulled out my cell phone. I went into my notes and pulled up Rosalie's address as I hailed a cab.

* * *

**Hey guys! So sorry this chapter is kind of short. **

**Leave me some love please :)**

**One Of Those Girls - Avril Lavigne**


	14. Same Mistake

**Same Mistake**

**EPOV**

"Hehe oops." Tanya giggles into my ear as I watch Bella walk through the crowd, away from me. I can smell the vodka on Tanya's breath and it reminds me of the kind of girls I used to associate with back in Forks. Before Bella. I shove Tanya off of my lap and onto the floor. She clings onto my neck with her fingernails and whines something at me, but I just pry her fingers from me and push through the crowd of people.

I make it to the exit and look frantically down the sides of the street. I don't see her. The first thing that comes to mind is that she's walking alone on these streets. She really shouldn't do that at this time of night, especially in that dress. I know that Bella is smarter than that but I still can't help but panic. I ask the man at the door if he saw her and flashes me a creepy smile before pointing down one side of the street and saying she looked like she was trying to get a cab. I don't even bother to smash his face in for the thoughts that must have been going through his head with that smile, and sprint down the street.

I get the corner and don't see her or any cabs. I don't think that she would have gone farther. But I'd rather not take my chances and run a few more blocks. I start asking around just to make sure, and a woman tells me that she saw the girl that I was describing get into a cab a few minutes ago. I hope that she went home and race to the parking garage.

I was so frantic that I could barely see straight while driving. All I could think about was getting to Bella and holding her in my arms again. To explain to her that it wasn't what she thought it was. That it was just Tanya being Tanya.

All I could see was Bella's face at the restaurant. I had never seen her look so hurt. When her eyes started to well up with tears it was like a knife in my heart. I would do anything to keep her safe, to keep her from ever shedding a tear. She was crying because of me; because of what she thought that I had done.

How could she think that though? She knows how much I love her, how could she ever question that? Why would she believe a drunken stranger over me? O my god that's exactly what I did with Jake.

_God I'm such a hypocrite_

I couldn't believe that this was happening again. Another bump in the road. Well it's more than a bump it's more like a huge gap in the train tracks. We had never had anything like this happen before now. And twice in one summer.

I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest it was pumping so hard. I kept imagining that that woman had been wrong. That it wasn't Bella and that it was some other girl and Bella was out the streets somewhere. She could be raped or killed, hell anything. My worst fear was that she wouldn't be at home.

* * *

I ran into the apartment, accidentally slamming the door behind me.

"Bella" I said, in case she was nearby. I walked forward and didn't see her in the family room.

"Bella" I called again, a little more loudly. I walked into the kitchen. No Bella.

I looked towards the bedroom and the door was closed. I tiptoed to the door and slowly turned the doorknob. No Bella. I went into bathroom. No Bella.

By this point I was frantic and ran down to the other side of the apartment, looking in the office and the dining room. I even looked in all the closets. No Bella. I took out my phone and called her three times, all going straight to voicemail. I walked into the family room and threw myself onto the couch. I hugged the throw pillow and pushed my face into it. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I could cry. And I can honestly say that I was scared. I didn't know where she was. I didn't know if she was safe and okay. I didn't know why she wasn't here.

_This must have been how Bella felt when I left_

_And it feels like pure hell._

Then I heard a knock on the door. I shoot up off the couch and run to the door throwing it open only to see my little sister with her hand on her hips, scowling up at me.

"What. The hell. Did you do." She says.

I try and shut the door but she pushes it open against me and walks into the apartment.

Alice walks past me and stands in front of the family room, just looking at me.

"Edward. Anthony. Cullen." She says sternly, emphasizing every word. "What did you do." She asks.

I rub my hands over my face. The last thing I want to do right now is get yelled at by Alice.

"Where's Bella" I ask. She must know. If anyone knows it would be Alice.

"What happened" Alice retorts.

"**Where's. Bella**" I ask, more sternly.

"**What. Happened**" Alice replies, just as harshly.

I growl and walk past her and into the kitchen. I can hear Alice's heels clicking furiously behind me as she follows me into the kitchen. I open up the fridge and take out a water bottle, drinking nearly half of it in one gulp. I wasn't really thirsty, I just needed something to do besides looking at Alice's murderous face.

I turn around and Alice has a jumped up onto the island and is still looking at me.

"Okay fine. If you're not going to stand there and be stubborn and not say anything, I guess I'll start then." Alice says.

"So here I was, all excited for this little dinner thing we had going on and I'm walking back from the bar with my drink to see Bella rushing out in tears. Then I look over and see that tramp all over you. Geez Edward what the hell is wrong with you! What did you think you were doing!" Alice says, fuming by now.

"Alice please." I say angrily, pinching the bridge of my nose. Her voice always gets really high when she yells. It's really annoying.

"Explain yourself." Alice snaps.

"Why should I tell you anything? You've obviously already made up your mind so just tell me where Bella is so I can get her, and get out. The only person that deserves an explanation is Bella. Period."

"Alright well A. I'm not telling you where she is because she obviously doesn't really want to talk to you right now, otherwise she would have come home Sherlock, and B. My mind is not made up, I'm just telling you what I saw, which is also what Bella probably saw."

I look at her skeptically.

"Look if you tell me what actually happened I'll see if I can explain it to Bella." Alice says.

"I don't want **you** to tell her. **I** have to tell her."

"Well I don't think you have any other options right now." Alice said calmly.

I take a deep breath and throw the water bottle on the counter.

"The night that I left, and don't pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about because I know you know, at one point I stopped at his bar to get a drink. I was just sitting there, minding my own business, and Tanya sits down next to me."

"And you know her how?" Alice asks.

"She was in a few of my classes at NYU. Anyways, she sits down next to me and starts flirting with me. She was quite drunk and I kept telling her that I wasn't interested, that I had a girlfriend. At one point she grabbed my face and tried to kiss me, but I pulled her off of me and got her a cab home." I say quietly.

"So….nothing happened right?" Alice says, looking at the floor calmly.

"No! Of course not Alice! I can't believe you even think that I would do that! You're my sister for Christ's sake!" I say.

"I was just making sure." Alice says. "So why didn't you tell Bella that?"

"I honestly didn't think it really mattered. It was like 4 minutes of the entire night and nothing happened. I never really thought I would see her again."

"Did anything ever happen with Tanya before that night?"

"No" I say, shaking my head. "I mean there was this party once where she came on to me a little bit. Okay maybe not a little bit, maybe it was a lot. But nothing happened. I never did anything with her. I was with Bella before I ever even met Tanya."

I lean against the counter and put my head in my hands. I cannot even believe that this is happening right now. Just when I thought we were out of the woods, we get shoved right back in back by fucking Tanya.

Alice hops off the counter and walks over to me and gives me a big bear hug. And she's pretty tiny so as much of a bear hug as she can manage.

"Where's Bella?" I ask quietly when Alice pulls away.

"She's as Rosalie's. I'm going to go over there right now and try to talk to her. Rose said she's not doing so hot." Alice says.

I wince just thinking of Bella falling apart somewhere because of me.

"Don't worry Edward." Alice says, patting my arms. "She'll be home soon. Just try and get some rest okay."

Alice kisses my forehead and hurriedly walks to the door.

"I'll call you when she's on her way home!" Alice yells from the door.

Get some sleep. How the hell am I supposed to get some sleep?

I walk into the bedroom with a sick feeling in my stomach. I don't even bother to change out of my clothes into my pajamas. I flop down on my side of the bed, looking at Bella's pillow. I slide over a push my face into it. It smells like her shampoo. So not as good as the real thing though.

I couldn't sleep. I ended up just looking at her pillow the entire night.

* * *

I woke up the next morning to my phone ringing. It was Jasper.

"Hey dude. How's it going?" Jasper asked me.

"Ugh not good. Bella's still not back yet and I didn't sleep a wink last night." I groan.

"Look why don't you meet me for coffee or something. Get some air outside of your apartment."

"No I don't think so. I want to be here when Bella gets home."

"You will be. Alice says she'll call you when Bella leaves Rosalie's. Come on. Get some coffee or something you probably look like shit." Jasper says.

"Alright fine. Just let me take a shower first."

"Haha yes I think that would be preferable for everyone." Jasper laughs.

Jasper gives me the address of the coffee shop and I jump in the shower and change. I decide to not take the car and walk instead.

Jasper's right. I could use the air.

* * *

**Hey guys! So I know this one was kind of short, but I promised a new chapter by the end of the weekend so here it is. **

**For some reason this chapter was really hard for me to write so leave me some love please aka reviews 3**

**Same Mistake-James Blunt**


	15. Is This What It Feels Like To Really Cry

**Is This What It Feels Like To Really Cry?**

**BPOV**

I got to Rosalie's apartment and knocked on the door.

She lived in a huge townhouse where half of the building belonged to her and half belonged to her neighbors.

Rosalie got to the door in only a few seconds. She flung it open and I saw there was a big, burly man behind her. He was the football type, with big muscles and short dark hair. He was a good number of inches taller than Rosalie, which is hard because Rosalie is quite tall herself… tall, blonde and perfect.

Rosalie turned around and grabbed the arm of the man behind her, throwing him out the door.

"Okay time for you to go!" She said to the man.

"Aw come on Rosie!" The man groaned, holding onto the doorframe with his fingers.

"No Emmett! I will see you later!" Rosalie said, taking his fingers off of the doorframe and grabbing my wrist while pulling me into her apartment.

Rosalie slammed the door and whipped around to look at me. Her blonde hair was all a mess and she was wearing a white tank top and Juicy sweats rolled up to her knees.

"Rose, I'm so sorry. If you were in the middle of something I can just go to Alice's or something…"

"Nonsense! Don't be silly! Don't worry about Emmett; he's just a big brute." She giggles.

Rosalie sighed and her cheery demeanor dropped.

"Come on" She said softly taking my hand, "I know exactly what you need."

She pulled me through the high ceilinged hallways of her apartment until we got to her bedroom. It was a light pink color with a huge ivory sleigh bed with gold designs, covered in pillows. The bed frame must have cost thousands of dollars. There was a large mirror in one corner, whose gold designs matched those of the bed. I looked up and saw a chandelier above her bed. I don't think I had ever felt a softer carpet underneath my feet. I hate to use the phrase, but it fits; Rosalie is **so** money.

Rosalie towed me to the left side of the room and threw open a set of double doors leading into a huge walk in closet. It had a tile floor with small gold flowers in between the tiles and another chandelier on the ceiling. The only thing I could see was floor to ceiling shoes. The closet turned to the left and I couldn't see anything else in it.

_Although I'm surprised to say that my very un-girly self wanted to._

Rosalie sat me down in a pink and gold cushioned chair.

"Just wait here. I'll be right back." She said, rushing off around the corner into the rest of the closet.

I sank down in the chair and threw my legs out in front of me. I stare at the ceiling and think about Edward. The last I saw of him that tramp Tanya was sitting on his lap.

I hate to be the person to come to conclusions without much factual evidence, but she was talking about the night that he left. The night he beat up Jake. And most importantly, the night that we had sex for the first time.

The more I think about it, the bigger headache I get and the more my heart aches.

Rosalie comes out before my thoughts can go too far, holding some pink sweatpants and a t-shirt.

"Here" She says placing them in my lap. "Put these on. You can just put your dress and shoes on the chair in the bedroom. I'll be in the kitchen." She says softly, kissing the top of my head before closing the doors to let me change.

* * *

I walked out of the closet after changing, holding my dress and my heels, clad in a white v-neck t-shirt and pink sweats that declared that my butt was 'juicy'. I placed my stuff on the chair in the bedroom and walked out into the hall.

_Now which doorway goes into the kitchen…?_

I peeked into almost every doorway until I found the kitchen on the right. It had three chandeliers and moldings on the ceiling with ivory cabinets and marble counter tops. I sat down on one of the ivory chairs with lime green cushions that matched the walls. Rosalie had her back to me, but turned around when she heard the chair scoot out. She was mixing some things in a bowl.

"I'm making chocolate chip pancakes. I thought maybe you could use some comfort food."

"Thanks Rose" I say with a smile.

I never expected that Rose would be so…accommodating. I know that's not really the right word though. I mean Rosalie and I are friends from work and she always said that if I ever needed anything I shouldn't hesitate to come over, but I thought that maybe she would let me cry on her shoulder or something. But I never expected her to give me sweats and make me pancakes so late at night. I work she's always the person who has a rock hard demeanor and gives the hardest criticism. She was always so nice when we went out to get lunch and stuff and I always felt totally comfortable talking to her, but I never expected this for some reason.

"You want some help?" I ask, scooting off of my chair.

"Oh no! Please just sit down and relax, okay?" She said pointing back to the chair with a batter covered whisk.

"Rose please! I don't want to sit. I want to do something… anything." I say.

The doorbell rang. Rosalie smiled and handed me the bowl.

"The skillet on the stove is pretty hot already. The spatula is in the top drawer on the left side of the stove." She says.

Rosalie ran out of the kitchen to get the door.

I was thankful that Rosalie understood my need to do something and not just sit. There were too many thoughts going through my mind. I needed to focus on something besides Edward and what he may or may not have done.

Unfortunately I knew that I probably wouldn't get the same understanding from our new guest.

Alice walked up behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist as I poured some batter onto the hot skillet.

"Oh Bella!" She sighed, letting go of me. I turned around to look at Alice, still clad in her blue stilettos and skinny jeans.

"Edward is so dumb." She says rolling her eyes.

"Alice, if it's okay with you, I would rather we not talk about it for a little bit." I say softly, not wanting to hurt her feelings.

"Are you sure?" She asked. I knew that she was going to try and make me change my mind.

"Yes I'm sure. Later. We can talk about it later." I say, convincing her that we will talk, just not while I am dealing with a hot stove.

Then I heard my phone buzz. I reached into the pocket on my sweatpants. Edward. Edward's calling. I rejected the call and slid the phone onto the island.

We finished the pancakes and sat down together at the island. I was pouring my syrup with my phone buzzed again. All three of our heads snapped up to look over at my phone on the island.

_Edward again._

I just stared at the phone as Alice and Rosalie both started at me. I quickly reached over and grabbed my phone before it rang a third time, rejecting the call before either of them could say anything. I put the phone down and looked back down at my plate. I noticed Alice and Rosalie exchange a glance before looking back down at their plates again.

We ate our pancakes in silence. I mean you could seriously hear a pin drop. I'm not sure if it was because we didn't know what to say, or if it was because the pancakes were so good.

_And they __**were**__ seriously good._

We were cleaning our plates in the sink when we heard my phone ring again. There was no doubt that it was Edward.

"Bella, are you sure you don't want to…?"Alice starts.

I didn't let her finish before I angrily grabbed my phone and rejected the call. Rosalie and Alice just stared at me. I threw my phone back on the counter and stomped off into the bedroom.

I threw myself down onto Rosalie's bed, smashing my face into one of the throw pillows on her bed.

I wanted to cry. I **really** wanted to cry. I knew it would make me feel better but as hard as I tried, I couldn't get myself to cry. I was too confused. My head was throbbing so, **so** much. My mind was bombarded with images of Edward, and not all good ones.

I can't help but come up with the worst scenarios in my mind regarding Tanya and Edward. I imagined them kissing, holding, making out. When my mind imagined them actually having sex I stopped myself. Edward would never do any of that. Or at least Edward wouldn't go that far.

_Would he?_

I hated to imagine her touching him. Or even worse, him touching her. Suddenly I felt like our making love was tainted. That it wasn't as meaningful as I once thought it was.

And that was when I started crying.

* * *

I must have fallen asleep because I opened my eyes again to feel a damp pillow beneath my face and Rosalie's head three inches away from mine.

"Alice!" She yelled in a harsh whisper, "She's awake!"

I felt Alice's small body flop onto the bed and her face pop up next to mine. They both just looked at me.

"Do you guys need something?" I asked sarcastically. I immediately felt bad for snapping at them. I guess I was a little cranky from my impromptu nap. Rosalie flashed me a light, understanding smile.

"Sooo…" Alice said, drawing out the word. "Do you wanna know what happened with Edward and Tanya?" She asked quietly as though she was afraid that I would snap at her again.

"No." I pouted, wrapping both arms around the throw pillow and gripping it tightly against my head.

Alice looked at me from underneath her eyelashes suspiciously and Rosalie looked down at me with a cocked eyebrow.

"Yes." I say quietly, looking down at the sheets.

"Okay then." Alice says.

Rosalie and Alice moved up on the bed, therefore forcing me to shift so that I was in between them on the bed and we were lying with our heads on the bunches of pillows. I kept the pillow I had hugged to my stomach for comfort.

Alice turned so that she was lying on her side facing me and Rosalie.

"Okay." She says, pushing her elbow up to rest on the pillows so that her head is resting in her hand.

"The first thing that you need to know is that **nothing happened between Edward and Tanya**. No sex, no making out, **nothing**. Understand?" She said softly, pushing some hair out of my face.

"What happened that night was this; Edward was having a drink, as you know, and Tanya came up all drunk and wanting to make out with him and shit. He tried to deny her advances politely, but when she got a little too touchy-feely, he got her a cab and sent her home." Alice finished.

I could feel Alice and Rosalie looking me, but didn't look at either of them.

"If it was nothing then why didn't he tell me?" I asked quietly.

"Ugh because he's stupid! He's my idiot big brother!" Alice sighed.

"I don't know Alice…" I started.

"What don't you know?" Rosalie said quickly, placing a hand on my arm.

"I just…I just don't know. Where does he know her from? How does he know her? Have they done anything in the past? She's a very attractive girl… I can't believe that he didn't think about doing something with her….ugh. My head hurts." I said, pinching the bridge of my nose.

Alice giggled.

Rosalie and I both looked up at her, a little shocked.

"Sorry." she giggled "It's just that you and Edward both do that when you're stressed and stuff."

I looked back down at the sheets.

"Look," Alice said, petting my head in softly, "I can't really answer any of those questions for you because I think that you should ask Edward all of that. But there is something I will tell you. Edward loves you. He loves you more than his own life. Hell, he would cut off his own hand if you asked him to!"

I giggled softly at that.

"I have never seen two people so connected as you two are. I mean are you aware that when you guys are in a group of people, you move around each other? When you move, Edward moves so that he is the same distance away from you, and vice versa. You guys are like magnets, always pulling the other person towards you. And just like magnets, the farther and longer you are apart, the harder you snap back together."

I started to tear up again. I knew what she was saying was true, and it scared me. To know that I needed someone so badly, that I needed **him** so badly, scared me. In all honesty, I felt as though my happiness; screw it, my life, depended on being with Edward. I had never felt so vulnerable, so open to hurt and pain.

I couldn't hold it back anymore, I openly started sobbing. Alice and Rosalie wrapped their arms around me and let me cry. After a few minutes Alice kicked her shoes off onto the floor and Rosalie grabbed the covers and pulled them over us and we all fell asleep in Rosalie's huge bed.

* * *

I woke up the next morning between Alice and Rosalie. Rosalie was snoring.

_Ahh! I have found her one fault…_

I climbed out of bed and padded into the kitchen. I went into a cabinet and got some cereal and a bowl. I was about to pour the cereal into the bowl but stopped myself.

Rosalie had already helped me so much. Even though it wouldn't seem like a lot, I would feel bad taking her cereal and giving her an extra bowl to clean. I put the cereal and the bowl back in the cabinet. I sat on one of the chairs by the island. My mind kept thinking 'I want to go home, I want to go home'. I was like Dorothy in the "Wizard of Oz" except instead of ruby slippers I figured I could catch a cab.

I walked back into the bedroom to see Rosalie and Alice still asleep and took my dress and my shoes off of the chair. I changed out of Rosalie's clothes in her closet and put them in a hamper I found in the back.

_And yes I did wander through the rest of the closet, and yes it was awesome._

I put my dress and my shoes on and as I grabbed my purse off the chair in the bedroom, I caught a glance of myself in the large mirror in the corner of the bedroom. My hair was a mess and what little makeup I had on was all smudged. I was not very attractive.

_Well all the better. Maybe this will deter guys from hitting on me in broad daylight. Alone. Without a guy. Without Edward._

I shivered and decided to write Alice a note to tell her I left and to tell Rosalie how thankful I was for her kindness last night. I placed the note on the table beside that bed. I walked into the kitchen, grabbed my phone, and silently closed the front door of Rosalie's apartment to get a cab home.

* * *

**Hey guys! I know the last few chapters were rather short so I made this one a little meatier. Pics for this chapter on my profile. If the think the pics are annoying and or you just dont look at them because you really dont care then let me know and ill stop posting them**

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**Cry-Kelly Clarkson**


	16. Energy

**Energy**

**BPOV**

By the time I arrived back at Edward's apartment, my resolve was slipping. I realized that nothing happened between Edward and Tanya, but I was starting to wonder about other things.

In the past month, two different people had attempted to destroy our relationship. In just one month. The one month out of our entire relationship that we really spent together. I mean we were always together in the summer but we always had to keep it under wraps. This was the first month that we could spend together freely, without needing to worry about what other people saw between us. If this was just the first month, how many more of these things would we have to go through? Is this just a bump in the road that we had to get through, or will this be something we will constantly have to deal with?

I put my key in the door and slowly swung it open, expecting to see Edward jump out of somewhere and smother me with kisses. But there was nothing. Only silence. I walked towards the family room and saw that his jacket wasn't thrown across the chair like it usually was. That meant that Edward wasn't home.

My shoulders slumped and I walked into the kitchen to get some breakfast.

I was somewhat bothered by the fact that Edward wasn't home, but also grateful for some more time for me to think.

I opened the fridge to see that we had almost no food left. Leave it to Edward to wait until the last morsel of food is eaten to acknowledge that we are low on the food supply. I took a yogurt, one of the few items of food we had left and sat down at the island.

It seemed that the farther down into the yogurt cup I got, the worse my thoughts became.

By the time I got to the bottom, I had convinced myself that the best thing to do was to leave New York City.

Not break up with Edward necessarily, but leave none the less. Maybe we jumped into this living together thing too soon. I mean we were living apart for so long. There were many things that I still didn't know about him and many things I'm sure he doesn't know about me. I wasn't even sure if these feelings that we had towards each other would last. People always say that the whole physical thing wears off after a little while. Maybe it's just taking longer for us because we got in the game so late.

The whole Jake thing and then the Tanya thing…it's wearing me out. My emotional tank is pretty much empty. If that is what we had to go though in a month, what would the rest of the summer be like? Or the year? Or, dare I say it, the rest of our lives?

Did I really want to risk losing my family? I mean, sure my parents haven't always been the best. They haven't always been there for me or anything like that but if I lose them, all I really have is Edward. And if I lose Edward, then I have no one. I always promised myself that I would never allow myself to need anyone. I am far too close to needing Edward. If I allow myself to feel the need for him that I know I soon will, I am leaving myself too open, too vulnerable. I'm not sure if I'm ready for that.

So I'm going to go home, back to Forks, and just think for a while, I guess. I need to figure out what I am willing to give up, and what I am willing to risk.

I threw my empty yogurt cup into the trash can and went into the bedroom. I pulled my suitcase off of the top shelf in the closet and threw it open on the bed. I had to leave before Edward got back, otherwise I may not be able to make myself leave. That much I know.

I grabbed everything that was hanging in the closet that belonged to me and threw it in the suitcase, not bothering to fold any of the nice shirts that Alice had bought for me when I first arrived here. I grabbed a shirt and a pair of sweatpants that landed on the top of the pile. I quickly stripped off my dress and shoes, changing into more comfortable clothing. I stuffed my dress and shoes, along with all of the other shirts, dresses, and shorts into my suitcase, pushing them down inside so that I had more room for the rest of my things. I had just grabbed an armful of shoes from the closet floor when I heard the door swing open and click close.

_Shit. Edward's back._

I decided that if I just didn't look at him, maybe I would be able to make it out the door without crying. I had convinced myself that I was doing the right thing.

I could hear him calling my name and scuffling through the rooms of the apartment. Then his footsteps stopped at the bedroom doorway. I didn't turn to look at him. I didn't even move. I just looked down into my suitcase.

"Bella." He said with a relieved sigh. "I'm so sorry that I wasn't here when you got back. Alice just called me to say that you had left." He said softly.

He walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Oh god Bella, I'm so so-"

He stopped mid-sentence. I braced myself.

"Bella…What are you doing?" He asked sternly yet quietly.

I didn't move.

"Bella. What. Are. You. Doing?" He asked again.

The only thing that I could make come out of my mouth was a meek "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Well, it looks like you're packing." Edward said roughly.

I didn't say anything and pulled out of his grasp towards the closet to get the rest of my shoes.

"And where exactly do you think you're going?" He asked.

"Home." I said quietly, leaning down to pick up a shoe I had dropped from my arms onto the floor.

"I thought this was home!" Edward spat. I could tell he was angry but he said it so quietly, I could tell he was hurt by what I said. By the time I turned around with the rest of my shoes, Edward had grabbed an armful of clothes out of my suitcase.

"You are not leaving Bella. I won't let you." He said.

I ignored him and walked back to my suitcase, putting my shoes in while he still stood there holding my clothes.

"Bella if this is about last night…"

"It's not." I cut him off.

"Then what the hell is it!" He asked.

I spun around, a little shocked by the anger in his voice. His face didn't look angry though. It looked scared, probably as scared as I was.

"I just don't think that we can live like this." I said quietly.

"What are you talking about?" He said, softer this time but still rough.

I didn't say anymore. I knew that he would try and convince me to stay. And it probably would work. I couldn't let that happen.

_Come on Bella. Toughen up. Just get your stuff and leave. You are doing the practical thing. _

I walked over to my suitcase and zipped it shut, deciding to just leave whatever Edward was holding. I pulled the suitcase off of the bed and it fell with a clunk on the floor.

"Bella!" Edward said his voice a little shocked.

I ignored him and pulled the suitcase out into the hall. Edward ran out behind me and went through the kitchen so that he cut me off in the hallway from the side.

"Bella, whatever it is we can work it out. You don't have to leave. And you're going back to Forks? Besides your parents, who and what are there for you Bella? Name one good thing that's back there." He asked, his eyes desperate. He was walking backwards slowly as I tried to push him out of the way.

I came to a halt. My eyes shot up at him. What is that supposed to mean? That my parents aren't enough of a reason for me to want to go home? That they aren't good enough? That they aren't important enough?

By the look on his face, he knew that he had made a mistake in saying that, and I took the opportunity to brush past him. I made my way to the foyer but stopped when I was about to reach for the handle on the door, hearing a noise on the floor behind me. I turned my head to see Edward on his knees on the floor with his head in his hands. I could hear him quietly saying my name. Then he finally looked up at me. He looked as if he was about to cry. I had never seen Edward cry before. I had never even seen his eyes well up before.

"Please." He begged, his voice cracking at every syllable, "Don't leave me Bella."

I could feel my eyes starting to well up, but turned my head back to the doorknob, where my hand was resting. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to block out all thoughts of Edward behind me.

_Turn the knob….turn the knob….Come on hand! Turn the damn knob!_

The more I told my hand to turn the knob, the more it seemed I was unable to do so.

I started to think about the consequences if I did this. Two plans were laid out in my mind.

One; I could leave and go back to Forks, live with my parents, and probably end up married to Jake, living in Forks for the rest of my life.

Or two; I could stay here with Edward, with the man that I loved with all of my heart, my soul, and my body. And I wouldn't mind where we lived. Or how much money we made, or if we ever went back to Forks at all.

I could still hear Edward's whimpered mumbles behind me. I just couldn't block him out.

_Now is the time to make the choice Bella. Play it safe, think with your head, and go home, or take a risk for once, think with your heart, and stay here with Edward. _

My eyes stayed shut, my ears only hearing Edward as my hand dropped limply from the doorknob and my body leaned over to the right and fell against the wall.

I let my body slump down to the floor and hugged my legs to my chest. For the first time in a while, I openly sobbed.

I turned my body to see Edward still on the floor. I slowly crawled towards him, using every ounce of energy that I had left in my body to reach him. When I was about two feet away from him, he heard my sniffles and looked up at me. In a split second, Edward had pulled my body towards him and was cradling me in his arms.

He whispered my name, sprinkled with various 'I love you's' into my hair, as I cried into his chest with my arms in a death grip around his neck.

"I'm sorry" I cried.

I now realized that the actions that I had convinced myself to make earlier were impossible. When I had my hand on the doorknob, about to embark on a path that would completely change my relationship with Edward, as well as the rest of my life, I couldn't do it. I could not make my hand turn the knob. As much as I told myself to do it, I could not physically leave. I don't think I will ever be able to.

Edward didn't respond to my apology, he just continued to plant kisses all over my face. After a few minutes we both still hadn't calmed down. I think I scared him almost as much as I had scared myself. We soon both fell over onto our sides on the floor, holding each other until we fell asleep.

I held onto Edward like my life depended on it. I was a little frightened by Edward's hold on me, though. It was as if he was afraid that if he loosed his grip around my waist the slightest bit, I would slip away from him

* * *

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**Energy-Keri Hilson**


	17. Never Say Never

**Never Say Never**

**EPOV**

I woke up on the wood floor of the hallway with Bella crushed to my chest. My shoulder was sore from boring into the floor all night, but I didn't care. I could smell Bella's strawberry shampoo right underneath my nose. I pushed my face into her soft hair, letting myself get wrapped up in her scent. I looked over to the clock on the wall. It was 11pm. I couldn't believe we had slept for so long. But then again I had gotten no sleep the night before. Perhaps Bella hadn't either.

I suddenly realized that I had holding her more tightly than was probably comfortable for her and loosened my grip on her. My arms had been wrapped around her small frame in a bear hug and our legs were tangled up. I could feel her steady breaths on my chest through my shirt, still damp from her tears.

I wondered what would happen when Bella woke up. Would she decide that she really didn't want to stay? Would she yell at me? Would she hate me? For once in my life, I actually hoped that Alice had opened her big mouth and told Bella everything that I had told her.

I realized that our position on the floor left Bella open to the same shoulder pain that I was experiencing, so I carefully rolled to the side so that I was on my back and Bella was on top of me. I guess the movement stirred Bella too much because she shifted in my arms a little bit before her eyes fluttered open.

She seemed a little surprised by the new position we were in and looked around a few seconds before locking her gaze with mine. Her face was serious. Not angry, but emotionless. She slowly brought one of her hands to rest on my chest, her fingertips grazing my collarbone. I could feel her other hand on the side of my face as her fingers played with my hair. Her face was still like a stone.

"Bella" I asked quietly, sliding one hand up from where it was resting on her hips to her hair. Her eyes softened as the corners of her mouth twitched upward into the light smile. I leaned my head up so that my lips made contact with hers. We both sighed lightly and she pushed her body into mine, forcing my head back down against the floor.

"We need to talk" She whispered against my lips, our foreheads touching.

I sighed. To be honest all I really wanted to do was kiss Bella right now. Hell we just woke up and I was still a little scared from the events of yesterday…well actually today. Still one more hour till tomorrow. As much as the whole Tanya thing scared me, actually seeing Bella try to leave was a million times scarier.

"About?" I asked. I wasn't sure which she wanted to talk about; Tanya or her almost leaving me, the later one destroying my life forever.

"Tanya" She said quietly.

I was about to speak but she cut me off.

"Alice told me everything and I know that nothing happened between you two, but I still don't understand why you didn't tell me about it." She said.

I took a deep breath before I spoke. I didn't really know what to say, because this wasn't what I had expected her to ask. I had practiced what I was going to say to her in my head for hours to night before. I had wanted to make sure that I could explain my thoughts to her as clearly and quickly as I possibly could, leaving her no room to distrust me. But I had expected her to want to know all about what happened when I saw Tanya that night.

"Honestly, I wasn't even thinking about it." I said, opening my eyes to look at her. "When I came back to the apartment that night and when we talked the next morning, I wasn't thinking about it. It wasn't a defining moment of that night for me. If anything, what happened with Tanya that night made me need you even more. Tanya is just like the girls I used to date back in high school. I don't think I've ever seen Tanya not completely wasted, come to think of it."

"You knew her before, then?" Bella asked.

"Yes. I met her at a couple of parties at NYU."

"O"

_O? That's all she has to say, 'O'? _

I pushed myself off of the floor so that I was sitting up with Bella in my lap.

"Bella" I said, pushing my forehead against hers. "What happened with Tanya that night…it made me want you more, appreciate you more... need you more. You need to understand that **nothing happened**. **Not that night and not ever**. And not with any other girls either." I pleaded.

"I'm sorry." Bella said quietly, looking down in her lap. "I didn't mean to distrust you or anything. I do trust you, really I do. I guess I was just overwhelmed. Nothing like that ever happened with us before."

"Yes it had." I said.

Bella looked up at me quizzically.

"Jake?" I said, reminding her.

We locked eyes with understanding. We had now both experienced that same thing. The same fear and anxiety that I had felt with Jake, now Bella had felt with Tanya.

"Now about this morning…" I said nervously. Part of me was afraid that she would say that she still wanted to leave. The caveman part of me wasn't afraid of that, not because he thought it wasn't a possibility, but because he would fight tooth and nail to not let that happen.

Bella stayed still, not even moving her eyes to look up at me. I couldn't even hear her breathing.

"Do you still want to…leave?" I asked quietly.

"No! No... No…" She said immediately.

I breathed a short sigh of relief.

"Well…then why…um why did…" I didn't really know how to word was I was asking. I wanted to know why she tried to leave, but I didn't want to say it in a way that sounded like I was angry at her.

"I don't really know actually. Not anymore." She said, her eyes still locked with the floorboards.

"I was scared I guess. I thought that maybe this was only the beginning. That what was happening wasn't the thunder at the end of the storm but rather the rumblings just before it."

I waited a bit to see if she was finished before I put in my thoughts. She opened her mouth again, but snapped it shut before saying anything.

"Was there something else?" I asked, leaning my head down to try and get underneath hers so that she would look at me. She simply turned her head to the side away from me.

"I guess I also kind of wanted to leave before I was left." I said.

I was shocked. How could she say that? Why would she ever even think that? Doesn't she know how much I love her? Damn it, how much I **need** her?

"Bella. I will never leave you. Ever." I said fiercely.

"Never say never." Bella said quietly, her face still turned towards the floor and away from me.

I grabbed her face in my hands to force her to look up at me. The brims of her eyes looked as though they were holding tears, like she was trying hard to not let them fall.

"I will **never** leave you. I will **never** leave you. I will **never** leave you."

I didn't know if now was really the right time, when we were in the middle of a conversation and all, but I couldn't help myself.

I pulled Bella's face to mine and kissed her hard. She whimpered and wrapped her arms around my neck. Our kisses started out slow, and got progressively quicker and more desperate. I leaned forward, Bella still clinging to my neck, so that I was hovering over her on the floor. Her legs automatically latched themselves around my hips to pull me closer to her.

My fingers slowly massaged circles into her hipbones before slowly sliding over her stomach and pulling her shirt over her head. She was still wearing her black strapless bra from the night before. And that reminded me of what other small article of clothing she was still wearing; the blue fishnet boy shorts.

At that thought, I probably could have taken her right here on the hallway floor. But my gentlemanly side won me over.

I stood up from the floor and swung Bella around so that I could carry her properly. I clutched her to my chest, almost running to the bedroom. Her nose was nuzzling my collarbone as I walked. That was when I felt a tear fall on my shoulder.

I kicked the bedroom door shut and gently sat Bella down on the edge of the bed, me standing in front of her. She looked down in her lap. I didn't understand at all why she was crying. Maybe it was me just being oblivious, like Alice has told me all guys are. I could feel my brows furrow as I threaded my hands in her hair, trying to soothe her. Bella rocked forwards and her head burrowed into my stomach as her hands wrapped around my torso tightly. As I was about to ask her what was wrong, I felt her words vibrate against my skin, but it was so muffled I couldn't tell what she said.

"What Bella?" I asked, pulling her face up to look at me.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. For everything. For Jake, for Tanya, for running off, for crying right now, hell I'm sorry for making you feel like you can't drink anymore. Everything... all of it."

Slow, quiet tears streamed down her face as she looked up at me. I pushed her back so that I could kneel in front of her on the bed. I pulled Bella slowly to her knees as well so that our eye lines were almost level.

My hands tangled in her hair again so that I could pull her lips to mine. I had hoped that our kisses may have convinced her to stop crying.

I hate when she cries. But this is a well known fact by now. To basically everyone.

Whenever we pulled apart for air, she would apologize quietly again.

I couldn't stand it anymore. I wrapped one arm around her waist and kept one in her hair as I slowly lowered us down onto the bed. Her arms locked around my neck and when Bella's back was fully settled into the mattress, I pulled my lips away from hers, keeping all my weight on my forearms beside her head.

"Stop. Apologizing." I whispered strongly.

Bella's arms were still locked around my neck, but her face was surprised and taken aback by my tone.

_Good going you idiot. Way to kill the moment by growling at her._

"It's not your fault. None of this is your fault." I said.

"I don't believe that." She said.

"Well then let's just agree that if you are at fault, I am just as guilty as you are, if not more. But I am sorry for growling at you just now."

"Its okay" She whispered, looking down at her bare stomach.

I pulled back a bit to rest my weight on my knees and slipped my hands behind her back.

"It's just that I'm trying to make love to you and you are making it quite difficult." I whispered in her ear.

I unclasped her bra and threw it to the side, sitting back to admire what I had unveiled beneath me.

"You know that bra does absolutely nothing for your breasts" I said, matter of fact-lee.

"Edward" She said, narrowing her eyes at me and probably a little shocked by my bluntness at a time like this.

"Well it doesn't." I said, moving my eyes up from her chest to her chocolate brown eyes.

"I much prefer them like this." I said quietly, leaning down to kiss each of them chastely.

Bella groaned and pushed her chest up towards me as her hands tangled in my hair. I couldn't deny her and patiently gave each breast the attention it deserved.

Bella moaned and squirmed until I decided that the teasing had to end so we could both keep our sanity.

I hooked my thumbs on the sides of her bottoms and pulled them down her legs before sliding up her body and locking my mouth with hers. My hands found their way to her ass and I could feel her warm skin through the fishnet of her boy shorts. Bella groaned and I honestly couldn't tell you what happened next. All I know is that in a matter of seconds I had ripped off the rest of our clothing.

I had been lying in the silence with Bella for a while, just relishing in the feeling of her bare skin on mine. My left arm was resting underneath her head and her body pressed into my side, her right arm flung over my torso.

There was a bit of moonlight that shone in through the curtains that gave Bella's skin a glow that was mesmerizing me. I noticed spots on her perfect creamy skin every now and then where I may have held her too tight. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt her in any way, especially after all this.

_It was amazing sex though…._

"Edward" Bella said, muffing her words as she turned her face into my shoulder.

"Yes love?"

"I think there is something else we should talk about…"

_O great. What else did you do, you bastard! Why don't we try really hard not to be a dumbfuck anymore okay?_

I sat up and leaned against the headboard of the bed. Bella sat up as well, leaning on her arm with her body still angled towards mine.

"I think we need to say everything. We tell each other the things that happened while I was in Forks and you were here. It's caused too many problems. So I think we should just get the rest out now."

"Rest of what? The rest of the things that we **didn't** do?" I asked my voice a bit harsh. It felt like she still didn't believe me.

"No. Well not **exactly**. Here I'll start."

Bella proceeded to tell me every single thing that happened while I was away at school. The part that I really perked up at was the portion where she told me about everything that happened with Jake.

At first I was angry with her for not telling me at the time. But when she gave me her reasons, I have to say that she was right; I probably would have killed him. So I guess by not telling me, she saved me from a mountain of legal fees and life in prison.

Then I told her about every single party that I went to, which ones were alright and which ones sucked. Mostly they sucked. I told her about any girl who I remembered that came onto me at parties. I also added that most of them were drunk and desperate.

_And that's the honest truth_

After a few hours, we had basically told each other every incident that happened when we were away from each other. For the past couple of minutes though we had been telling each other stupid things like every single movie we saw over the past year and stuff like that.

When we reached every single thing we ever had for breakfast, we just started making up the grossest combinations we could think of. Bella was no match for me in this category. When I whipped out Coco Crispies with every condiment available at a grocery store, Bella squealed in disgust and fell over laughing, pushing her face into the blankets on the opposite side of the bed.

When her laughing subsided she turned her head up to look at me.

"What day is it?" She asked.

"Umm I think it's Saturday? Maybe?" I said, looking down at her.

We exchanged a look of 'does it really matter anyways because we obviously aren't leaving here'.

It turns out it was Saturday. And we didn't leave the apartment once the entire weekend.

* * *

**Firstly-I'm so sorry I haven't updated in a while! My deepest apologies :)**

**Secondly-I have been nominated for an award! I'm in the Best All-Human catagory for the Red Moon Awards! If anyone has any info on these award could you let me know? My beta told me about the nomination but I don't know anything else besides that. **

**Thirdly-It looks like this story may be coming to an end. Maybe 3 or 4 more chapters :(**

**Reviews are my life**

**Never Say Never-The Fray**


	18. Stay Close, Don't Go

**Just wanted to warn you that their are some POV changes throughout the chapter. BPOV for Bella and EPOV for Edward**

**Stay Close, Don't Go**

**EPOV**

It has been three months since the Jake/Tanya incidents. I am happy to say that nothing like that has happened again. Actually, it has been absolute bliss.

I've been working and Bella has been going to school and sometimes I get jealous of Bella's schoolwork. I know I know…it's weird. When we get home at night, most of my work is left out there, but Bella's work comes back home. Sometimes I just watch her work. And it's hard when she gets really stressed out about school and stuff. I want to help her but the only thing I can do is help her study. I can't actually be there to help her with answers or write her papers or give her speeches. And God knows if I could do all that I would in heartbeat, if it would make Bella not so stressed.

I have been thinking about popping the question lately. I just feel like it's the right time. And I just can't wait anymore. I cannot wait to make her mine in every way possible. And this is the last one that I can think of that we haven't done yet. Just picturing my ring on her finger makes me giddy.

_God you are such a woman._

I glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It's 1:30 AM and I haven't slept a wink. I look down at Bella. She has been sleeping soundly ever since I got home.

I had to meet a few guys for some drinks to talk about a job offer. It's not something that I would absolutely love to do, but if I'm going to support Bella like I want to, I'm going to need to make some pretty cash. I don't want to live off the money my parents have given me forever.

When I came home she was already asleep, her body diagonal on the bed with her torso on her side of the bed, but her head in my pillow. I quietly undressed and climbed into bed as gently as I could. She woke up anyway of course; typical Bella. She squinted up at me.

"Edward?"

"Yes, love?"

"Stop trying to be so quiet. You're not very good at it." She mumbled, tossing her arm around my waist and turning her face into my chest.

I chuckled and put my arm around her, pulling her closer into my side. She was asleep in seconds, but I have been awake ever since then. Currently I am trying to practice proposing to her. I decided that I shouldn't practice out loud in case she heard me.

I really can't come up with anything that I feel is really worthy of the magnitude of the situation. I don't just want to say "Be my wife" but I don't want to go into some long cliché speech either. I want to say something that is meaningful to both of us and specific to our…_unique_ situation. I didn't want to do the classic 'make me the happiest man on earth' kind of thing because it seems like everyone says that.

I had gone through four different speeches by the time I dozed off.

* * *

I woke up the next morning and felt an unusual emptiness. I looked down to see that Bella wasn't in the room.

_Right. She has school. How inconvenient. Too damn early for school. _

I stumble out of bed and walk into the kitchen. Bella is hurriedly making some sort of breakfast before she has to run off to class. I chuckle lightly and sit down at the island to watch her. After a few seconds she spins around from the sink and yelps a little bit when she sees me.

"Edward!" She gasps her hand on her chest.

"I'm sorry love. I didn't mean to startle you." I smile.

Bella scampers over to me and gives me a light kiss as she turns around to finish making her breakfast.

I can't stop staring at her. She looks unbelievably frazzled, but I still can't help but think that she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I look down my hands and lightly trace the lines on my palms with my thumb.

"Bella," I say

"Huh," She says

I look up at her, still trying to get the right mix of berries and yogurt.

"Marry me."

Bella stopped pouring berries and turned around slowly to look at me.

"What?" She asks quietly.

"Marry. Me."

Bella's face was blank. She just stared at me. I had a bad feeling that I may have just screwed this whole thing up.

_Good job asshole. Way to ask her at 7 in the freaking morning. She's probably not even fully awake yet! O yea and the way that you asked it…'marry me'…smooth. Not._

"You're serious?" She asked me

_Is she serious?_

"No Bella, I'm kidding. I thought it would be fun to fake propose to you. Yes of course I'm serious!"

Bella smiled apologetically and walked over to me, forgetting about her breakfast. She placed her hands on my shoulders as mine automatically went to her hips to pull her closer to me.

"Are you sure now is the right time?" she asked

"I'm sorry I asked you like that…really I shouldn't have just blurted something like that out, especially this early in the morning…"

"No no no," she cut me off, "It's just that my parents still don't even know that we're together. And I mean, I'm only 18. And I'm not saying I want to wait to see if someone else comes along or anything I just… you know…"

I could tell she was babbling, not really knowing what to say next.

"Bella, it's okay. I understand." I said, putting my hand over her mouth so that she would stop talking.

"You do?" She asked, uncertain if I was telling her the truth.

"Yes. Completely."

_No. Not at all._

"Okay…" She said. I could tell that she didn't believe me, as she shouldn't.

"Well I have to go now, okay?" She said.

I nodded, trying to put on a happy 'it wasn't that important anyways' face. She kissed me lightly and ran her hands slowly through my hair, her fingers barely grazing my scalp, as she pulled back to study my facial expression. If I wasn't so upset, I could have purred like a cat. She must have been satisfied with what she saw, because she glanced at the clock, realized she was late, and kissed my forehead quickly before waving goodbye and running out the door.

The second I heard the door click shut I dropped my head into my hands. I am so stupid. I can't believe I asked her like that! What the hell was I thinking! She had every right to say no after a stupid proposal like that.

I sat back and lightly beat my head on the countertop a few times. Not hard enough to do any real damage, but hard enough to let myself know how stupid I was.

I should just call her parents right now and tell them. No that's stupid too. But then Bella wouldn't have any reason not to marry me. But I don't want to force her into anything she doesn't want to do. But she also thinks she's too young. People get married at 18 all the time… right? Or at least they used to…And I'm 22, soon to be 23. I can get married. I want to get married… but only to Bella, obviously.

I dragged myself into the home office and slumped down in the chair. I pulled out the box that had Bella's ring in it and popped it open. I took the ring out and held it close to my face between my thumb and forefinger, moving it around to see it catch the light. I have had this ring for almost three years now. I know I used to say that I didn't care if we got married now or in twenty years, but damn it I changed my mind.

I put the ring back in my desk drawer and sulked back to the bedroom to get dressed for work.

* * *

**BPOV**

I can't believe Edward proposed to me. Quite frankly, I'm shocked. I mean I had always pictured myself marrying Edward, but I just wasn't expecting him to ask me so soon.

Why did I say no again? Oh right, I'm too young, my parents don't know about us, and marriage scares the hell out of me. I didn't tell Edward that last reason.

If I was ever going to marry anyone, of course it would be Edward. But I have seen many a marriage go sour very quickly and very ugly. My parents got married too young, that's why their marriage is such a mess now. And they were older than Edward and I.

I looked around the small coffee shop I was sitting in. It was almost empty, being that it was almost lunch time and no one goes to a coffee shop for lunch. But I needed the quiet. I had too much on my mind.

I couldn't even concentrate in my morning classes. All my notes turned into gibberish, with various wedding terms and Edward's name written in the middle of sentences. When I wrote my name on our quiz, I wrote my name as Bella Cullen.

_What is wrong with me?_

I groaned and picked up a People Magazine that someone had left on the table next to me. I had to get my mind off marriage. I flipped through pages of ads and pictures of celebrities. As I was flipping though, I spotted an ad with the classic Tiffany blue. I held the magazine back away from me and slowly raised my left hand up to hold it in front of the diamond ring on the page, trying to imagine what a ring would look like on my finger.

_Aw geez what am I doing?!_

I growled and pulled my hand away, tossing the magazine back onto the table next to me.

Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as I think it would be. Okay I'll do that thing that Alice says you should do when you can't make up your mind; I'll say the question out loud and then answer without thinking.

I looked around and didn't see anyone besides the girl behind the counter who was yakking on her cell phone. I decided that I should whisper anyways.

"Okay" I said quietly, shutting my eyes tightly. "Do I want to marry Edward…yes, I do." I opened my eyes and stared at the wall in front of me. Oh god. Now I really don't know what to do. Okay well let's make a pro-con list.

Pros: My finger would look good with a ring, I love Edward, Edward wants to marry me, I love Edward, taxes would be easier, and I love Edward.

Cons: I don't know how I feel about marriage.

Aw geez, that didn't help much. I need a weighted scale for these kinds of things. Like the more stars, the more important.

I have a lot to think about.

* * *

**EPOV**

It has been one week. One long, week. We haven't spoken of my dumbass proposal since then. Bella seems more distant since then too. Whenever I ask her what's going on in that little head of hers, she just says that she's had a busy week. And maybe that's true. But maybe it's not. Maybe she is pulling away from me.

The strange thing is that at night, she clings to me so tight that I'm afraid to move. And then we get up in the morning and she pulls away again. Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

I'm back late again and walk into the apartment, closing the door quietly on the off chance that it will wake Bella. And I don't care if she thinks that I can't be quiet when I get home late, I'm going to try anyways.

I shrug off my jacket and throw it onto the table in the hallway. I glance upward into the family room, and do a double take. Instead of Bella being asleep in the bedroom like usual, she was sprawled out asleep on the floor, surrounded by open textbooks and notes.

_Why am I not surprised…_

I walked over into the family room and carefully lifted Bella's sleeping form into my arms. I stood up with Bella in my arms and softly kicked a few books out of the way of my path on the floor as I carried her towards the bedroom.

I carefully set her down on the bed and went to the closet and pulled off my jeans and t-shirt, throwing them into a basket in the corner. I turned around to see that Bella had already twisted her legs in the comforter. I smiled lightly and walked over to her to take off her jeans and her blouse. I lifted her slowly again and tucked her under the covers before climbing into bed beside her.

The second I put my arms around her waist, Bella turned her entire body so that she could push her face into my chest. Maybe I _am_ over thinking everything. I look down at her, still sleeping. I press a soft kiss to her forehead and push my face into her hair, trying my best to get some sleep.

* * *

**BPOV**

I woke up not where I expected. Instead of seeing the carpet in front of my face like I thought I would, I felt Edward's warm chest against my cheek.

_God he smells good…_

His face looked so calm, so secure. I could feel his breath fan across my face. I could definitely do this for a _long_ time. I found myself thinking about marriage again. I mean it wouldn't really change anything would it? It's really just a signed piece of paper. We wouldn't even have to do a big ceremony or anything. We would share everything. I mean we kind of already do that now, it would just be official.

Why did I say no again?

* * *

**EPOV**

I woke up to a prodding feeling on my stomach. I opened my eyes slowly to see Bella, leaning on her hand with her bent elbow on my stomach. She looked at me, not even flinching when I opened my eyes to look at her. She kept the same look, as though she had been studying my face.

"How long have you been up?" I ask, rubbing my eyes with one hand, the other resting on the small of her back.

"An hour maybe."

"Mm," I nodded. I took my hand away from my eyes and twisted the ends of her hair though my fingers. I glanced at the clock to my right.

"Jesus it's early." I said, closing my eyes again. "Aren't you tired? You looked pretty wiped out last night." I added.

She just shrugged and kept looking at me, her expression never changing. I could tell that she was thinking about something, but I wasn't sure what. I looked out the window and could just barely see the sun rising through the curtains.

"Ask me again."

My head snapped back to Bella's face.

"What?" I asked

"Ask me again." She said, just as strongly as the first time.

It took me a second to put the pieces together, to realize what she asking of me.

"Bella…I don't understand…" I said, my eyebrows narrowing in confusion.

"You had better ask me again because I'm really not in the mood to wait another two years or however long for you to ask me again. Quite frankly, if you don't ask I will."

My head pulled back, a little shocked. I had never seen her so strong, so sure of herself before. I realized that she was more serious about this than she had probably ever been about anything else before in her life. I mean I've known her a long time and I had never heard her talk like that before.

"Okay…do you want to reenact it or just have me ask it the same way or a different way…"

"Oh for the love of God, Edward!"

"Alright, alright" I chuckled. I took a deep breath and put both my hands in her hair. "Will you marry me Bella?"

"Yes. Yes I will marry you." She said, taking my face in her hands.

I couldn't help the grin that covered my face right then. She leaned down to kiss me and I gave her a light peck before I shimmied out of her grasp.

I leapt out of bed and ran down the hall to the office. I yanked the entire desk drawer out and took out the ring box. Not even bothering to put the drawer back, I just threw it on top of the desk before running back down the hallway.

When I got back to the bedroom, Bella was sitting on the bed cross-legged with her arms crossed and a cute little pout on her face. She probably wasn't going for cute with the pout, but that's what it was to me.

"What the hell are doing?" She asked, clearly not happy with my sudden disappearance from the room.

"I'm sorry love. I just thought that now would be the appropriate moment for me to give you this." I said, holding the box in the flat of my palm.

Her face softened and her arms fell to her sides.

I opened the box to let her see the ring. I was a little nervous. Bella wasn't one for opulence and I wasn't sure how she would feel about the ring. It was platinum with a large stone in the middle surrounded by smaller stones and the top half of the band had stones on all four sides.

"Do you like it?" I asked. Bella just kept staring at the ring in the box.

"I love it," Bella said quietly. "You already had a ring?"

"Yes." I nodded. "I've had it for a while actually."

"How long is a while?" she asked, still studying the ring.

"Almost three years." I said. Her eyes widened a little bit and she nodded.

I smiled and took the ring from the box. I took a hold of her left hand and slowly slid the ring onto her finger.

"Is it too big? Too small? We can get it sized if we need to." I said. I don't know why I was asking so many questions. I guess I was still nervous, even though she had just threatened to propose to me.

"Oh just shut up." Bella said, grabbing my face in her hands so that she could kiss me. I could feel her smiling against my lips.

"May I ask what brought upon your change of heart in this matter?" I asked.

"It didn't change," She said. "I just listened to it for once."

* * *

**Hey so I hoped you liked it! I'll let you guys know the results of the Red Moon Awards! Cross your fingers for me! Hopefully I'll win!**

**Reviews are my loves :)**

**Stay Close, Don't Go-Secondhand Serenade**

* * *


	19. Love Will Tear Us Apart

**Love Will Tear Us Apart**

**BPOV**

So this was it. The moment of truth. I stared down at the phone in my hand, listening to the hum on the line as if it was mocking me. It's like the low murmur was saying "Go on. Call them. You won't."

Edward had gone out to get groceries, letting me be alone to think before calling my parents. Not only did I have to tell my parents that I was getting married, but that it was to a man who they had only met a handful of times not knowing that we had been in a relationship for the past 3 years. All over the phone.

Part of me was grateful that I didn't have to see their faces when I told them. Edward had offered many times to fly us out there, or just me if that was what I wanted, so that I could tell them face to face. I knew that would be too hard.

I looked down at the phone again. I had been just staring at it for a while I wanted to get it over with before Edward got home.

_Well here goes nothing_

I slowly dial the home number that I know by heart. It rings four times and I pray that it will go to the answering machine.

"Hello?" A high breathless voice says into the phone.

"Hi Mom" I say.

"O hi honey! My goodness I'm sorry honey I practically broke my neck racing in here to get the phone!" she laughs. I choke out a small laugh to try and ease myself into what I had to say.

"How's New York? I'm sure living with Alice is fun. It's so nice that she offered a spare bedroom! Sure did save us some cash you know." She says

"Yea….umm listen is Dad around?"

"Yes he's around here somewhere…" She trails off

"Umm do you think he could get on the other phone? I have something I have to tell you both." I say. I start twirling my foot in nervousness.

"Yea sure honey. Hold on."

I sit there waiting for a few seconds until my nervousness takes over and I start pacing from the couch to the mantle and back again.

_Geez how long does it take to get to a freaking phone?_

"Bells?" I heard my Dad's voice on the phone.

"Hi Dad." I saw meekly

"Alright I'm on another line too honey." My mom says. "Now what was it that you wanted to tell us?"

They both sounded so unassuming and innocent. Like they thought I was about to tell them that I got into the Honor's Program at school or that I had enough money to get my own place. And I was about to drop a bomb on them.

I took a deep breath. I had thought long and hard about the best way to do this. And I had decided that the best thing to do was to just say it. Then answer their questions. Edward didn't agree with my reasoning, but it's my secret to tell.

"I'm engaged." I winced on the line, waiting to hear what their response would be.

"…in what Bells?" My dad asks.

_O great this is starting out well_

"It's not **in** anything Dad." I said silently. "I'm engaged to be married."

Silence. 30 seconds later. Silence. 45 seconds later. Silence.

"I don't understand…" My mom says.

"I'm getting married." I say again slowly.

"Who is the boy?" My dad asks sternly.

"Edward Cullen." I say. "You met him a few times. Remember?"

"Yes." I've never heard his voice this hard before.

"Mom?"

"Yes honey. He's Alice's brother." She says.

More silence…..

I couldn't stand it but I knew that I just needed to give them time.

"Dad?" I ask

"O he's gone sweetie." My mom says.

"Gone?"

"He umm well…."

"No it's okay." I knew if anyone was going to hang up on me it would be him. I'm actually surprised that he lasted as long as he did.

_Or just waited long enough to find out Edward's name so he knows that he's killing the right guy._

"So how long has this been going on?" She asked

I proceeded to tell her when we got together and that I had been seeing him when I was in New York for the summer. I decided that I should live my living situation and the gory details of our relationship out of the story for this particular moment.

"I have to be honest." My mom said. "I really think that you are making a mistake. You are so young. And how do even know that this Edward is the right guy for you?"

"Mom you don't even know him." I say defensively.

"Exactly. Your father and I don't know him! I think that you are too young to be married, let alone make the decision to be married. You are too young to be making any serious relationship decisions actually."

"You can't be serious." Could she be more hypocritical?! She and my dad got married without ever having lived together before and because she was pregnant! I am none of the above!

"I am **more **than serious. Your father and I really cannot support this."

"Well are you guys even going to come to the wedding?" I am beyond livid by this point.

I hear my mom's intake of breath to respond before hearing my dad's voice is background taking to my mom. All I could hear was her asking him if he was sure over and over again.

"As I said, we really cannot support this. Your father says that if you go through with this marriage, he will cut you off."

_**What?!?!**_

I feel tears welling up in my eyes. I can't tell if I'm crying from anger or shock. Probably both.

I hear my mom on the line talking with my dad before his voice comes on the phone.

"Call us back when you've made your decision." My dad says and hangs up the phone.

I stared at the carpet and hung up the phone, allowing one small tear to fall down my cheek.

It felt like blackmail. I was being forced to chose. Because I knew that if I chose Edward, I would not only be losing my college tuition and possible retirement fund, but also my parents.

I walk into the kitchen and pull a carton of Ben and Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream out of the freezer and a spoon from the drawer underneath it.

I tend to eat when I'm upset. Edward used to try to get me to do something else with my emotions, but he eventually gave up on that and just tried to get me to eat healthier stuff when I overeat. That was also a failure.

So here I am sitting on the island in the kitchen, eating ice cream out of the carton with red, teary eyes, when Edward walks in.

"Don't make me put it away." I ask, my voice shaking from trying so hard not to cry.

Edward just shakes his head and places the bags on the counter, before walking over to me. He lightly touches my knees with both hands. I get the message and move so that he can stand between them.

I stare down into the carton, still eating, trying to control my tears before I look up at him. Edward doesn't say anything, just pushes stray hairs behind my ears.

"I'm guessing it didn't go as well as we hoped?" He asked, placing his hands on the sides of my head, pulling it up so that I would look at him.

I shook my head and he wrapped his arms around my body. I pushed my head into the crook of his neck, trying not to start crying again.

"They weren't too happy." I muffled into his shoulder.

I felt him nod slowly. We both knew that a bad reaction from my parents was entirely possible.

"What are you going to do?" He asked.

I sighed and lifted my head from his shoulder. I had made this decision a long time ago. There was no way that I could give Edward up. I couldn't and I wouldn't.

"I am going to get married. And so are you." I stated.

"I am?" He asked smiling, obviously trying to lighten the mood.

"Don't be a smart ass." I laugh, slapping his chest.

* * *

**So sorry its kinda short but I just could never really get this chapter right and it just ended up better this way. And i'm also sorry that I took so long to update.**

**ANDDDD i'm also sorry that the next chapter is going to be the last one :(**

**The next chapter is probably gonna be a long one so hang in there! **

**Reviews are lovely!**

**Love Will Tear Us Apart-Broken Social Scene**


	20. All We'd Ever Need

**All We'd Ever Need**

**BPOV**

Planning the wedding turned out to be a lot more stressful that I thought it would be. I had naturally assumed that the minute Alice heard about the engagement she would beg me to let her take the reins. I assumed that would mean that I didn't have to do anything but point at things.

_WRONG_

Alice insisted that I come to every single venue, cake tasting, and floral meeting. Even though I told her numerous times that I really did trust her judgment on these kinds of things, because honestly it would probably look a whole lot better if she did it that I, but she wants my opinion on everything down to the napkin rings.

Its winter by now and freezing cold in New York. I try to snuggle more into my jacket, but I know that the only thing that will help is getting inside the coffee shop where I'm meeting some classmates to have a study session.

I look around at all the shop windows being decorated for the holidays as a rush of icy air blows in my face. I pull Edward's beanie tighter against my head, but don't get it very far since I'm also wearing his mittens which are far too big for my small hands.

He constantly scolded me for not bringing winter clothes, but how the hell was I supposed to know that I was never going to be leaving when I came in JUNE. Whenever I point this out to him, he just flashes me a crooked smile and says that I should've planned ahead.

Edward did buy me a hat and gloves of my own, but I like his better.

Just as I'm starting to guess how many toes I'll be able to crack off of my feet by the time I get to the coffee shop, I notice a wedding dress store.

Normally I would walk right past them because the whole notion of wedding dress shopping just isn't appealing to me.

Dress shopping + Alice = Blegh

But the dress in the window was….perfect I guess.

It was simple, but not too simple. It had straps, which was a definite plus in my book. And it doesn't have glitter, sequins, rhinestones, or anything else that would go in that category.

I suddenly realize that I have stopped and turned to look in the window right smack in the middle of the sidewalk and people are stumbling to get around me. I smile apologetically at a woman talking loudly on the cell phone plowing towards me and sidestep out of the way closer to the window.

Then I proceed to have an internal battle about going into the store.

On one hand, if I go in I probably won't get out for a while. It's probably one of those things where the salespeople are a little TOO eager to help and don't stop yakking at you, like the stalls in the middle of the mall. And this is a wedding dress shop. I bet the salespeople in here are a lot more intense than the ones selling hand cream. I could be in there for days….

On the other hand, Alice isn't here.

I'm going in.

I pull the door open and a warm rush of air hits me.

_Thank god for heating systems._

The shop is small-ish with maybe 40 or 50 dresses. I pull off my hat and gloves as I scan the room. I spot a section that appears as though a craft store threw up on it and make a mental note to not go in that direction.

The only person in the store I see is a woman behind a desk in the center of the room. She looks as though she is in her low 30's but dressing like she's in her early 20's, complete with the popping bubble gum and People Magazine.

She looks up at me as if to say, 'I'm in the middle of a really interesting article about Brad and Angelina. Come back in ten minutes' and looks back down to her magazine.

_Well I guess I won't be getting any eager beaver employees here. _

I take her nonchalant acknowledgement of me to mean that I can just go though the dresses. I stuff Edward's hat and gloves into my pockets and start searching for the dress in the window.

The first couple racks I went though without success. It would have been success for Alice though no doubt.

I swear the day that girl gets married, it won't be perfect until it's on the front page of the New York Times and all the centerpieces will have lights and spin around singing whatever her favorite song is at the moment. I love her pieces, but we are complete opposites when it comes to our personal styles.

By the time I found the dress I had gone through just about every type of dress. Barbie princess dresses, all beaded dresses, dresses with Princess Diana-like trains, all lace dresses, all tulle dresses, short dresses, dresses that looked more like nightgowns, and my personal favorite, the translucent corset dress with some feathers here and there. I had never seen anything tackier in my entire life.

So when I found what I was looking for, it was like heaven. It was a breath a fresh air compared to most of the crap in here.

It was silk, but not so silky that it looked like a nightgown, with spaghetti straps and an empire waist. The straps were beaded and the small section below where my breasts would be was beaded as well. I had never been a fan of beading, but for me this worked.

I quickly found my size and tiptoed past the girl at the desk, now reading her horoscope, and into the dressing room.

I hung up the dress on the back of the door and hurriedly took off my numerous layers of clothing. I put the dress on and turned to look in the mirror. My cheeks were still cherry red from the cold outside and my hair was pretty much a mess from the snow. But still, I couldn't help but think that I looked pretty good. Scratch that; I look beautiful. I relished in the moment until I stepped more into the light and realized that my black bra and boy shorts were completely visible. I stepped back. These things can be remedied you know.

Alice always says that you have to think about the occasion and the setting when choosing your outfit. Well I defiantly have to occasion right. But what about the setting? I mean we hadn't really decided where we were going to say that vows or anything. We had talked about couple places, but nothing was final and we hadn't submitted any deposits anywhere yet. Alice has her heart set on this fancy garden/tearoom thing in Manhattan. She showed me some pictures and it did look really nice, but I loved this dress. And I was getting this dress, no doubt about it mister! And the dress didn't fit the setting so we need a new setting. Well what about a church? Nope. Doesn't fit. Plus I'm not so sure how Edward would feel about a church. It's just not us I guess.

For the life of me I could not think of a place that would match with this dress.

_Does that mean that I don't really want to get married? _

I looked down at the ring on my finger.

I heard my phone vibrate and took it out of the pocket of my jeans on the floor.

**Making spaghetti. Need help. Come home soon before all that's left of your home is a pile of ashes and a fiancé who can't perform a simple cooking task –Edward**

I slap my hand against my forehead as I laugh lightly.

_Well that's not it. I defiantly want to get married to this shmuck._

What could it be then……..

_Uhh o……_

Alice is gonna hate this

* * *

**EPOV**

When I texted Bella about the apartment possibly burning down, I wasn't joking.

I thought that I would do something romantic and make Bella dinner. The only things I really know how to make are sandwiches and anything that involves a microwave. I quickly decided that presenting Bella with a ham sandwich and a pile of neatly arranged potato chips would probably be a little less than swoon worthy. So I decided to attempt to widen my cooking repertoire.

That was a mistake.

It took me forever just to get the water to boil and when I put the spaghetti in it didn't all fit into the pot so and I had to switch pots and then the water kept bubbling over the sides. In short, I'm having a mini panic attack.

I quickly decided to give up my little 'romantic surprise'. I would much rather have Bella come home and help me than come home to…no home. And when you are kinda in to mood to 'get some', burning down our place of residence, is probably not the right thing to do. We kinda need to bedroom for that.

Scratch that. We don't actually need the bedroom. The car's great too. And the dining room. And the home office. And the kitchen…. Wait we wouldn't have the last three if I burned down the apartment.

I hear the door slam which quickly breaks my stream of thought.

I turn around to see Bella walk into the kitchen. She throws a white garment bag onto the couch and kicks off her shoes into the corner.

Her face is rosy from being out in the cold and my snow covered hat is three sizes too big for her, as well as the gloves.

"Alright I'm here what's the emergency?" She says quickly, tossing the hat and gloves onto the counter on her way to the pot on the stove. "Edward the flame isn't even on." She sighs, turning on the stove.

She pulls a wooden spoon out of a drawer and starts to stir the pasta, which I'm assuming means that I didn't completely destroy it.

_So that's what those spoons are for…._

Bella turns around and leans back on the counter, letting out a short sigh.

"You alright love?" I ask. I hoped she wasn't upset with me for my little pasta fiasco.

"Yea. I'm fine. Just a little stresses I guess."

Bella walked over to the bar stool where I was sitting at put her hands on my shoulders.

"I did want to ask you something though." She said, looking down at my feet. She cocked her eyebrow and looked up at me from under her eyelashes when she saw what was on my feet.

"The Christmas tree socks? Really? Already?"

"Hey don't judge." I chuckle, taking her hands from my shoulders and rubbing them between my hands. "Your hands are freezing."

I pull her into my lap and I shutter when she pushes her icy cold forehead into my neck.

"You wanted to ask me something?" I say. Her cold forehead is making me ice cold, but I want to get her warm sooner rather than later so I try to focus on something else.

"Yeaaa." She muffles into my neck. "I wanted to talk to you about the wedding plans."

"What about them?" I nod.

"Well…are the deposits we put down on that hotel ballroom refundable?" I can feel her holding her breath since I can't feel her breathing through my t-shirt anymore.

"I don't think so. Why do you ask?"

"No reason." She says, slumping slightly in my arms. "Just wondering."

I can tell she's lying. Sometimes I humor her so she thinks she's good at it. But she's terrible. And there is no way I'm letting this go.

"No you weren't." I state. "Tell me what's going on in there." I say, lightly tapping her temple with my finger.

"It's nothing." She says, trying to slide off my lap.

"O no you don't." I say, keeping my hands firmly locked on her hips. "You aren't leaving this spot until you tell me what's going on."

"Okay." She says. She wraps her arms around my waist and closes her eyes, resting her head on my shoulder.

I wait for a couple seconds. And a couple more. And a couple more.

"Bella" I growl.

"Yes?" She says looking up at me, feigning innocence. "You said that I was going to stay here until I told you. But there is nothing to tell. So I'm just going to sit here with you."

"Bella comeee onnnn." I whine, bouncing my knees up and down in my lame attempt to make her slightly less comfortable so she would tell me what was going on.

"Alright alright!" She laughed. "I guess I'm just not a hundred percent sure if I want to get married there anymore."

"I figured as much." I laughed. "When Alice first showed that place to us I was waiting for you to go apeshit crazy on her ass. But when you didn't say anything I assumed that you were okay with it."

"Well I was at first. But I guess I changed my mind." She said her voice full of remorse. I could tell all she was worrying about was the non-refundable deposit we had already put down.

"When did you decide this?"

"Just today when I was out buying…." She trailed off.

"Out buying what?"

"A dress." She said quietly. Immediately my ears perked up. I had figured Alice would have had to force her into a wedding dress, let alone get her to pick one out. And how do I know that it's a wedding dress?

The garment bag is white

Bella never buys a dress unless she has to

I just know. I can read her like a book.

"May I ask the color of this dress?" I laugh

"No!" She pouts, clearly upset that she hasn't fooled me.

"Can I see it?" I ask, already knowing the answer. I'm unbelievably curious to know what she picked out.

"No!" She says again.

"Alright may I at least ask where you might wear such a dress?"

Bella doesn't say anything at first.

"Now that we're back on the subject…"

"O are you going to tell me where you **would** like to get married now?" I tease.

"I want to elope." She says, her head snapping up to look me straight in the eyes.

_Why am I not surprised. Should I be surprised? Maybe I should act like it. _

I decide to go with my initial un-surprised reaction. She already feels bad enough about the dumb deposit.

"Then we will." I say. As much as I would enjoy seeing Bella walk down the aisle in a her white dress with lots of people around, it clearly is not what she wants. I was surprised when she let Alice take the reins with the whole wedding thing. But I am glad that she chose to do what she wants, instead of what Alice wants.

"Really?" She asks, searching my face for an answer.

"Well of course. If you're sure it's what you want love, we can do it."

"But is it what you want?"

"Bella. What I want to do is marry you. I will marry you in front of hundreds of people or alone on a cliff. All I want to do is marry you. As long as I get the ring on your finger," I say grabbing her left hand and waving it in front of her face, "I'll be happy as a clam."

"O. Okay then." She said, probably just as surprised as I was that I agreed so quickly.

I chuckled and kissed the top of her forehead.

_We are going to elope._

* * *

**BPOV**

The next day Edward and I went to the airport. We got there at 11:30 and decided to take the next flight available to a warm place, which happened to be the Canary Islands.

We spent a day sightseeing and along the way stopped to buy some flowers for a bouquet. The second day we got married on the beach. It was beautiful and perfect. I could never have asked for anything more.

* * *

**Hey guys so this is it unfortunatley. It's been fun and I hope you all have enjoyed my little story. **

**I know the ending is kind of lame, personally I don't really love it, but it's stressing me out that I didn't have this done yet. I would have spent more time on it but I'm a little more concerned with college applications right now. I**

** have read every single review and loved every single favorite and alert and you guys have given me. Hope to write again soon and best to you all!**

**All We'd Ever Need - Lady Antebellum**


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